
LEONARD woo 



CONSERVATOR OF 
AMERICANISM 





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LEONARD WOOD 

CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 




LEONARD WOOD IN 1919 



LEONARD WOOD 

CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 
A BIOGRAPHY 

BY 

ERIC FISHER WOOD 

AUTHOR OF "the WRITING ON THE WALL," 

"the note-book of an ATTACHE,"^ 

ETC., ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED 




NEW XSJr YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



e:iv 



COPYRIGHT, -1920, BY 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



kb 27 1920 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



)CI.A565042 



TO 

MY WIFE 



NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS 

Major-General Leonard Wood, the subject 
of this biography, and Lieutenant-Colonel Eric 
Fisher Wood, the author, are not connected by 
blood ties. 

The author is a 'Tlattsburger" and his mili- 
tary career is typical of that of hundreds of 
young Americans, who enthusiastically translated 
into action the teaching of Leonard Wood, the 
prophet of Americanism. 

During the World War, the author was twice 
wounded and twice decorated; and although at 
the beginning of the conflict he was only twenty- 
five years old, and had had no previous mihtary 
experience, the end of hostilities found him a 
Lieutenant-Colonel on the General Staff — a re- 
sult of the impetus gained at Plattsburg under 
the inspiration of General Wood's teaching. 

As one of the Executive Board of nine mem- 
bers which conducted the Plattsburg Military 
Training Camps Association, and as a writer and 
speaker on preparedness, the author frequently 
came into contact with the subject of this bi- 
ography, both in an official and in a social way. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Wood is a graduate of 
[vii] 



NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS 

Yale University and was a student of architecture 
at the ]&cole des Beaux Arts in Paris before the 
War. In 1914 he was Civil Attache at the Amer- 
ican Embassy in that city, and later a founder 
and commissioned officer of the American Am- 
bulance in France. 

When he returned to the United States in 191 5 
he became an active participant in the Plattsburg 
movement, and Vice-President of the National 
Security League. 

He served in the British Army during the first 
six months of 19 17, and in July of that year was 
released from the British forces and commis- 
sioned Major of Infantry in the new National 
Army of the United States. 

He is the author of "The Note Book of an 
Attache," "The Writing on the Wall," "The 
Note Book of an Intelligence Officer" and of 
numerous magazine articles. 



RviiO 



PREFACE 

The idea of writing a biography of Leonard 
Wood first took shape in my mind as early as 
1914. 

At that time I was in the American diplomatic 
service in Europe, where the war, and military 
matters in general, became the one and only sub- 
ject of interest. *One of the all-absorbing topics 
was the question of America's probable attitude 
towards the war. 

This led to much discussion of American af- 
fairs and American men among the civilians and 
officials with whom I came into contact in France 
and England, in Germany and Austria. 

I then gained a new conception of Leonard 
Wood, and discovered that his reputation was far 
higher in Europe than at home. In America we 
thought of him merely as a competent soldier, 
but I found that the official classes of the Allies 
and of the Central Powers rated him not only a 
great soldier, but as one of the world's greatest 
administrators; and that they considered Theo- 
dore Roosevelt and Leonard Wood the two most 
notable living Americans. 

Since 19 14 his own countrymen have seen 



PREFACE 

Leonard Wood in a new light, for his work at 
Plattsburg, his pleas for preparedness, and his 
dignified reticence under injustice have elevated 
him in public opinion at home nearer to the Euro- 
pean estimate. 

Before commencing the compilation of this 
biography, I had expected to find, already in print, 
a great mass of material upon which to base my 
work, and confidently anticipated being able to 
study numerous books, either written by Leonard 
Wood or about him. My search for such ready- 
made material was, however, fruitless. Little 
or nothing was to be discovered. 

I found that he had, for popular consumption, 
published only one small volume on prepared- 
ness, and that that contained no information 
about himself. It was, in fact, so impersonal 
that, even inferentially, one could gain little im- 
pression of the writer beyond his burning spirit 
of patriotism. 

It was also surprising to find how little he 
had ever talked about himself, and how seldom 
he had given others a chance to talk about him or 
his work. 

He has preeminently been ''not the speaker 
but the doer of the word." No living man of 
equally great achievements has so effectively es- 
caped publicity. 

During my past acquaintance with him, as 
well as in numerous recent interviews, it seemed 
impossible to obtain from him any material of a 

[x] 



PREFACE 

strictly personal character. He has been most 
generous in furnishing subject-matter, relating 
to historical events in which he had participated, 
but his part in these events was passed over 
lightly or was allowed to drop out of sight alto- 
gether. 

It therefore became necessary to fall back 
upon a painstaking research into his official re- 
ports — of which there are nearly a hundred vol- 
umes, upon my own knowledge of his personal- 
ity, and upon information gained by me during 
several years from his associates, past and 
present. 

Among those to whom I am especially indebted 
for valuable information and strong impressions 
are the late Theodore Roosevelt, the late Robert 
Bacon, Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, 
and Colonel Henry L. Stimson, who was Secre- 
tary of War when General Wood was Chief of 
Staff; also to Mr. Edward Barlow, one of 
Wood's boyhood playmates; to Captain Patch, 
who served with him in the Indian campaigns of 
the Southwest; to General Edwin F. Glenn and 
General Charles Kilbourne, each of whom has 
served as his Chief of Staff; to Halstead Dorey, 
Gordon Johnston, S. M. Williams, Wilbur Smith, 
Thomas Gowenlock and Landon Thomas, who 
have at various times served him as aides-de- 
camp or staff officers; and to his sons, Leonard, 
Jr , and Osborne. 

I am also indebted to my mother, Frances 

[xi] 



PREFACE 

Fisher Wood, not only for valuable aid in pre- 
paring this book for publication, but also for 
careful genealogical research in Leonard Wood's 
ancestral lines, resulting in the discovery of the 
names and records of some four hundred of his 
American ancestors. 

E. R W. 
December, ipip. 



[xii] 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Ancestry and Boyhood 19 

II Personal Characteristics 42 

III As A Surgeon • • \ 48 

IV The Geronimo Campaign 56 

V The Spanish-American War .... 72 

VI Governor of Santiago 97 

VII The Wood Method 112 

VIII Appointed Governor of Cuba . . . 127 

IX Governor of Cuba 142 

X Turning Their Government Over to 

Cubans 175 

XI The Conquest of Yellow Fever . . 188 

XII The Rathbone Case 203 

XIII Governor of the Moro Province . . 216 

XIV Dato Alt 237 

XV The Military Administrator . . . . 252 

XVI The Conservator of Americanism . . 281 

XVII The World War 302 

Index 345 

[xiii] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Leonard Wood in 1919 Frontispieu ^ 

PocASSET Boys oe Today. Grandsons of Leonard 

Wood's Boyhood Playmates 32 

The Schoolhouse in Pocasset Where, as a Boy, 

He Studied for Six Years 33 

The House Which Leonard's Father Built 

About 1875 ^^•' 

Where the "Shorepeeps" Lived 33^' 

Geronimo, War Chief OF THE Apaches . . • 64 

Some of the Men Who Ran Down the Apaches . 64 ^ 

The Apache Chieftains Shortly After Their ^ 

Capture ^ 

Leonard Wood at the Time of the Geronimo ^ 

Campaign . . • ^' 

Officers of the Cavalry Division .... 80 
Leonard Wood and His Eldest Son at the Epoch 

OF THE Spanish War 80 

Chaplain Brown Preaching to the "Rough 

Riders" ^^ 

Leonard Wood as Governor of Cuba . . . i44 
Governor Wood's Headquarters in Habana . i44 

[xv] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The American Army Entering Habana . . . 145 

The Cuban Rural Guard, Organized by Govern- 
or Wood to Preserve Order Among Their 

Countrymen 145 

Habana Harbor 145 

MoRRo Castle 145 

"Before and After Taking" Members of the 

Philippine Native Constabulary . . . 224 

A Mohammedan Moro and His Family , . . 224 

The Princessa of Cotabato and the Sultan of 

Magindanao 224 

A Moro Boloman 224 

A Sea Moro Pirate Chieftain 225 

A Ruined Spanish Church in Mindanao . . 225 

In the Philippines 225 

A Typical Village Street in the Moro Province 225 

At the German Maneuvres of 190c .... 288 

At Plattsburg. "Not too Proud to Fight" . 28S 

At Plattsburg. Watching the Plattsburgers 

AT Drill 288'^ 

At Camp Funston. General Wood Began the 
Training of His Mounted Troops in Spite 

of the Lack of Horses 289 

At Camp Funston. Typical Reserve Officers 

in Field Uniform 289^^ 

At Gary 289 ^ 

At the Time of the Boston Police Strike . 289 i»- 

[xvi] 



LEONARD WOOD 

CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 



LEONARD WOOD 

CONSERVATOR 
OF AMERICANISM 

CHAPTER I 

ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

Leonard Wood's parents were Charles Jewett 
Wood, born at Leicester, Massachusetts, and 
Caroline Hager, born at Weston, Massachusetts ; 
they were married in 1859, when the former was 
thirty years old and the latter twenty-three. The 
father, Charles Wood, was a physician. Leonard, 
their first child, was born on October 9th, i860, 
at Winchester, New Hampshire. 

The next spring the Civil War, long smolder- 
ing, burst into flames. Ever since December, 
1620, when two of Charles Wood's forbears, 
Stephen Hopkins and Richard Warren, had 
landed from the Mayflower under command 
of Captain Myles Standish as members of a rec- 
onnoitering party and had fought the famous 
"First Encounter" with the Indians two weeks 

[19] 



LEONARD WOOD 

before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth 
Rock, there had never been any warfare in Amer- 
ica in which the ancestors of Charles Wood had 
not bravely taken their full part. 

Therefore, it was consistent with the family 
tradition that in 1861 he should promptly answer 
the call to arms. Moreover, his brave wife, who 
was descended from equally stalwart lines, and 
was a great-granddaughter of General John 
Nixon of the Revolution, insisted that she 
should not stand as an obstacle in the way of his 
patriotic duty. The dominant characteristic of 
their ancestors who are on record was, genera- 
tion after generation, without exception, devo- 
tion to the high ideals of what we now call Ameri- 
canism, — and the records of an astonishingly 
large number of them are known to us. 

The forbears of both Charles and Caroline 
Wood were all born in this country or migrated 
to it before 1700, nearly all arriving before 1650, 
and the personal histories of more than four hun- 
dred of them have been traced and are set down 
in public records. Seven of them were passengers 
on the Mayflower; and more than fifty during the 
period of the Colonial Wars rendered patriotic 
service, either by active duty in the field against 
the French and Indians, or by equally valuable 
service in the legislative bodies of the Massa- 
chusetts Colony. In the later generations, at 
least seven were soldiers in the Revolution.* 

*Sfe Appendix No. 2. 

[20] 



ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

It must be granted that a long line of colonial 
ancestors is not in itself a conclusive guarantee 
that a man will be imbued with a spirit of pro- 
found patriotism, for some of our American-born 
Tories, Copperheads and Bolsheviks have con- 
spicuously lacked that virtue, while it is found in 
a superlative degree in many recently naturalized 
citizens of foreign birth. But in Wood's pedigree 
we discover an unprecedented record, for among 
his hundreds of known ancestors not one is 
found who cannot pass the severest test of Amer- 
icanism. From earliest times, his forbears have 
striven for that ideal condition where love of per- 
sonal liberty is happily balanced by respect for 
constitutional law. 

It has been said that the Mayflower would need 
to have been as large as the Leviathan to have 
brought over as many souls as present-day Amer- 
icans claim came across in that tiny bark. In 
point of fact, there were, according to the records 
of Governor Bradford of Plymouth, exactly 104 
passengers on the ship and among them were only 
twenty-two heads of families to whom those 
claiming Mayflower ancestry have ever been able 
to prove descent. 

Leonard Wood, by verified records, traces to 
four of these twenty-two men: — William White, 
Francis Cooke, Stephen Hopkins and Richard 
Warren, and to three of the members of their 
families who accompanied them. 

Many of the passengers of the Mayflower were 

[21] 



LEONARD WOOD 

appalled at the inconceivable hardships of the 
first winter in Cape Cod, and, finding the struggle 
to realize their ideals of liberty too arduous for 
their endurance, returned next spring to Eng- 
land; but no one of Wood's ancestors was among 
these of faint-heart. 

Also, many of the less hardy among the little 
band died in Plymouth during that terrible win- 
ter. The twenty-two leaders, who with their 
families survived the ordeal and braved it out, 
left long lines of descendants who in physical 
vigor, indomitable courage and strength of prin- 
ciple have for three centuries been the superlative 
type of American citizen. 

To the early immigrants, Puritans or Pilgrims, 
and their descendants their new country was first, 
last, and always of supreme importance. In it 
they had finally found a refuge, where they could 
develop for their children and their children's 
children an atmosphere of religious liberty and 
constitutional political freedom. 

It is, therefore, not surprising that Leonard 
Wood's character and the ideals by which he has 
directed his life should correspond closely to the 
ideals of the men, his ancestors, who signed the 
immortal Compact in the little cabin of the 
Mayflower on that bleak twentieth of December, 
1620 — a compact that is justly considered to em- 
body the vital germ of our own great Constitu- 
tion. 

In addition to the dominant instinct for patri- 

[22] 



ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

otic public service, with its natural corollaries of 
military and legislative activity, we find in Leon- 
ard Wood's heredity, recurring in several genera- 
tions, a leaning toward the medical profession, 
which claims for its own men who possess the 
scientific turn of mind, supplemented with intense 
devotion to public welfare and an unlimited ca- 
pacity for self-sacrifice. 

These hereditary traits — medical, patriotic and 
executive— are the foundation upon which Leon- 
ard Wood, by virtue of his strong will and his 
ability to conquer his environment, has built up 
his earnest and efficient character. They rendered 
possible the great feats of administrative recon- 
struction which early earned for him his well- 
deserved international fame, — feats that would 
have been impossible of accomplishment to any 
one with military ability alone. 

In upholding and defending the Constitution 
of the United States, which his ancestors had 
helped to make, and in upholding the ancient stand- 
ards of the Pilgrim Fathers, the man with a long 
American pedigree has to-day a special mission 
among us. When the foundations of civilization 
are shaken, we look to these men of traditional 
patriotism to steady them; and to effect reforms 
and correct abuses as our forefathers did, by con- 
structive constitutional means and not by the de- 
structive measures of direct action. 

The men who settled New England were of 
marked type, fanatical perhaps, but fanatical for 

[23] 



LEONARD WOOD 

great principles. Personal comfort they aban- 
doned, class distinctions they abolished, surplus 
wealth was unknown among them. Even as late 
as 1720 the estate of the richest man in Massa- 
chusetts was inventoried at only $20,000. 

In much of New England, these primitive con- 
ditions had been modified before Leonard Wood 
was born. In the larger towns social distinctions 
had become fixed, considerable fortunes had ac- 
cumulated, arid the rigid principles of the Pilgrim 
Fathers had been relaxed. But at Cape Cod, 
where he passed the first nineteen years of his 
life, conditions were almost as simple as at 
Plymouth in the early Colonial days. 

Pending her husband's return from the Civil 
War, Caroline Wood lived with her people at 
Weston, Massachusetts, and there Leonard grew 
from babyhood to boyhood. The family was not 
re-united until 1865, when Charles came back 
from the army to rejoin his wife. Shortly after- 
wards they moved to Chiltonville near Plymouth. 
Doctor Wood's health had been wrecked by per- 
nicious malaria, contracted during the war, and 
he was advised to live among the pines and sands 
of the Cape. It was at Chiltonville that his sec- 
ond son, Jacob, was born. 

A few months later the Woods moved across 
the Cape from the Plymouth side, to Monument 
Beach on the Buzzards Bay side, where their 
third and last child, Barbara, was born. 

In 1867 the family again transferred itself, 

[24] 



ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

this time moving a short three miles along the 
shore in the direction of Martha's Vineyard, to 
Pocasset, where a more central location for the 
Doctor's practice could be obtained. There they 
established their permanent residence; there 
Leonard's boyhood and youth were passed, and 
there he lived until he went as a young man to 
Harvard in 1880. 

At that time most of the people of Pocasset 
were sailors, either owning their own vessels in 
the coastwise trade, or serving as masters of 
whalers or other deep-sea ships. 

In the desire to visualize the environment and 
sense the atmosphere of Leonard Wood's boy- 
hood, I paid a visit to Pocasset, which is to-day 
a local stop between Buzzards Bay Station and 
Wood's Hole on the Old Colony Line. Its little 
depot stands quite by itself; in the middle dis- 
tance are to be seen two or three houses, a church, 
and a schoolhouse. The people of Pocasset live 
in farmhouses widely scattered along two miles 
of the main street, which crosses the railway at 
right angles. 

The train stopped a few reluctant seconds to 
allow four passengers to alight and then was 
off again chugging diminuendo towards Catau- 
met, its next stop two miles down the line. Two 
of the passengers started cross-lots over the fields 
while a third approached a waiting farmer's 
wagon, whose driver was the only sign of life 
visible about the depot and therefore the only ap- 

[25] 



LEONARD WOOD 

parent source of information. He showed pained 
surprise when I asked him if there was any hotel 
where I might spend the night. 

"Reckon you better go up to the post-mistress' 
place and see if she can let you have a room. 
Fourth house on the left, up the road and over the 
hill." 

Five minutes' walk brought me to the post- 
mistress' house. She was not at home I was in- 
formed by her younger sister, a maiden lady of 
fifty-odd, a perfectly delightful person whose 
continued spinsterhood inspired me with aston- 
ishment, — until I remembered that the Old Col- 
ony constitutes one of the birthplaces of Amer- 
ica's pioneers and the cradle of her Empire- 
builders. For centuries her enterprising young 
manhood has generation after generation fared 
forth to conquer and push back the geographic 
and industrial frontiers of America, in the pro- 
cess leaving behind their sisters and those of 
their comrades. 

The postmistress' sister said that they *'were 
not fixed to take boarders," but added with the 
most generous and unaffected hospitality that 
they would, nevertheless, find some way to lodge 
me if other means failed. Other means proved 
to be Mrs. Jones' boarding house "up the road 
a piece." 

It developed during our conversation that my 
informant had been a schoolmate of General 
Wood in the little village school, and I induced 

[26] 



ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

her to talk about his parents and his school life 
for an hour, before I sought Mrs. Jones' establish- 
ment. 

"I was only ten," she said, ''and was in my 
first year at school when Leonard left to go to 
Pierce Academy at Middleboro. I saw him in 
Washington six or eight years ago and he re- 
membered me perfectly. He said, 'Why you don't 
look a bit different from what you did when you 
were the littlest girl in the village school, and I 
was the biggest boy.' 

"I can't tell you a great deal about his boyhood, 
because of his being six years older than I, and 
because he was a regular boy and didn't care 
much for girls. But his sister, Barbara, was my 
best friend until she died in 1880 when she was 
fourteen, and I used to be over to their house 
often, and knew her father and mother, and I 
can tell you about them. 

"They were most awfully fond of each other. 
I don't think they minded the hard work of be- 
ing a country doctor's family, or anything else 
for that matter, as long as they could be together. 
They were everything to each other. 

"Doctor Charles Wood was .the leading citizen 
of Pocasset in his day, being head of the school- 
board and having a great deal of influence in the 
community. He was universally well liked, had 
a great sense of humor, excellent judgment, and 
was most kind-hearted. Every one respected him 
for his unselfishness, of which the most striking 

[27] 



LEONARD WOOD 

evidence was the vast number of uncollected bills 
which he left at his death. 

"Leonard's mother was a mighty fine woman 
with lots of character. She was most ambitious 
for her boys and deserves a lot more credit for 
their success than most people remember to give 
her. Doctor Wood died in 1880, when Leonard 
was nineteen, but Mrs. Wood outlived him more 
than thirty years and always exerted a great deal 
of influence over her two sons, so that in addition 
to Leonard's success, his younger brother, Jacob, 
has become a very progressive and prosperous 
business man. 

"All of us children used to go to the district 
school, for it was the only one in or near Pocas- 
set. It was a mixed school of about thirty girls 
and boys. There were the three Gibbs boys ; and 
Carrie and Lizzie Adams; and the two Dimock 
boys, and Georgiana Dimock; and Fred and Ed 
Barlow; and Sadie Beckerman who is to-day 
Mrs. Fred Barlow, and Lizzie Wright, who is 
now Mrs. Ed Barlow; and Andrew and Preston 
Wright; and Leonard Wood and Louis Ray- 
mond; and Herbert, Everett, Jeanette, Walter, 
Eleanor and Abner Avery ; and Lucy, Mary and 
Annie Wing who are all dead now, and Chester 
and Byron Wing, and Henry Hammond, and 
several more whose names I have forgotten. 

"The school was equivalent to the gram- 
mar school of to-day, but was not divided into 
grades. In the autumn each scholar told the 

[28] 



ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

teacher where he left off the spring before and 
began his work at that point ; and each one took 
his own gait independently of the rest. 
' "The boys and girls in the school did not use 
standard books, but each studied from a different 
set, left over from the school days of their older 
brothers and sisters, and some were even in- 
herited from parents. 

"No books were provided by the Town, as the 
Cape Codders were doubtful whether expen- 
sive new editions would be any better than the 
ones on hand, although most of those in use were 
actually very much out of date." 

It developed that the most exciting incident of 
their schooldays was a successful house-to-house 
campaign undertaken by a new school-mistress 
named Miss Haskell in the hope of persuading 
the parents of Pocasset to buy a few up-to-date 
text-books with which advantageously to begin a 
new school year. 

The attendance was inclined to be irregular. 
Most of the boys went to work when they were 
"knee-high to a grasshopper," and only came to 
school during their spare time in the winter. 

"Even that didn't last many years," said my 
informant, "for if they were Shore-Peeps they 
went to sea for good before they were sixteen, or 
into the foundry if they were Up-Roaders." 

I requested an explanation of the terms 
"Shore-Peeps" and "Up-Roaders," and learned 
that the town had once been divided into two 

[29] 



LEONARD WOOD 

social sets. The main road of Pocasset runs in- 
land two miles from the shore until it joins the 
turnpike from Buzzards Bay Station to Wood's 
Hole. Midway between the water and the turn- 
pike, it crosses the Old Colony railroad at right 
angles. Beyond the railroad and near the turn- 
pike there used to be a foundry where pots and 
kettles for cooking on iron cranes in open fire- 
places were made, and also giant cauldrons for 
the sugar plantation of Jamaica and Louisiana. 
This foundry, however, went out of existence 
twenty-five years ago. 

When Leonard Wood was a boy, those who 
lived between the railroad and the coast were fol- 
lowers of the sea; they were called the Shore- 
Peeps. Those who lived between the railroad 
and turn-pike were molders and casters work- 
ing in the foundry, and were nicknamed the Up- 
Roaders. The Shore-Peeps and Up-Roaders did 
not harmonize very well. 

The distinction ran everywhere through all the 
lives of the inhabitants, not merely with the chil- 
dren at school or at play, but with their elders in 
church or at work. Thus was Pocasset society 
riven in twain. 

The schoolhouse, the church, the depot and 
the post-ofiice were all situated near the railway 
half way between shore and foundry and served 
both factions alike. The families of the school- 
teacher, the preacher and the postmistress were 
neutral and were known as the *Tn-Betweeners." 

[30] 



ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

Leonard Wood was a Shore-Peep, not only be- 
cause his father lived between the railroad and 
the tides, but because his own inclination led him 
constantly towards the sea. He and his younger 
brother, Jacob, were always on the water, cruis- 
ing or fishing off Patuisset and Exmouth and 
Magansett and Onset and Monument Beach, or 
even venturing as far South as Martha's Vine- 
yard, No-Man's Land and Gay Head. As a boy 
it was Leonard's ambition and intention to "go to 
sea" when he arrived at the mature age of six- 
teen, following the example of all good Shore- 
Peeps. 

"You ought to go visit old Captain Will Bar- 
low," advised the postmistress' sister. "He ran a 
sloop in the coast trade, carrying cargoes be- 
tween ports when Leonard was a boy, and took 
him on several voyages; and you ought to talk 
to his younger brother Ed, who is about Leon- 
ard's age. He won't be home daytimes because 
his wife is sick in the hospital at New Bedford, 
and Captain Ed goes to see her every blessed day 
and hasn't missed a day for two months, though 
it's a forty-mile trip. But he is at home every 
evening, and if he isn't, you'll find him next door 
at Mr. Roland Finney's, the grocer who married 
his daughter. 

"You ought also to see Captain Irving Gibbs 
of Cataument, who lives a couple of miles south 
of here ; he and Leonard have always been great 

[311 



LEONARD WOOD 

friends ever since they were six or seven years 
old." 

Accordingly, that evening I sought out Cap- 
tain Edward Barlow, and found a business-like 
old sailor, who had been master of ships for 
thirty years. He had commanded an American 
trans-Atlantic steamer throughout the recent hos- 
tilities, and even before America came into the 
war was fired at eight times by a submarine. As 
had been predicted, he willingly added to my in- 
formation about Doctor Charles Wood and his 
family. 

*1 can't tell you so much about Leonard as I 
can about his father, because there aren't so 
many things to remember about a boy as about 
his father, who worked with us so many years, 
and saved so many of our lives. 

''Doctor Charles Wood was a wonderful doc- 
tor. We think he was the best there ever was on 
Cape Cod. He was very original and a great 
reader of Human nature. I reckon that was an 
important part of his success in his profession." 

Captain Barlow told me how his own father, 
Captain Jesse Barlow, "had had nervous dys- 
pepsia and finally was unable to work daytimes, or 
to sleep at night. For many years he was mas- 
ter of a small vessel in the coasting trade and 
worked grinding hard. He ate when and where 
he could, and usually in a hurry; often he bolted 
his food. Finally he broke down his digestion 
and developed his nervous dyspepsia. 

[32] 




THE HOUSE WHICH LEONARD'S FATHER BLULT ABOUT 1875 




WHERE THE SHOREPEEPS LIVED 
32] 




POCASSET BOYS OF TODAY 

Grandsons of Leonard Wood's boyhood playmates. 




THE SCHOOLHOUSE IN I'ot ASSET 
Where, as a boy, he studied tor six years. 



[33 



ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

"Then he went to see Doctor Wood and asked 
him for some pills. Doctor Wood knew father 
well, and what ailed him, and why. He looked at 
him for a time, and then said : 'You better go see 
an osteopath.' 

" 'What will he do to me?' 

" *I don't know, but he is sure to do some- 
thing.' 

"So father went away, meaning to visit an 
osteopath, but the next day he came back again, 
and said he had decided against it, and wanted 
Doctor Wood to take charge of his case. 

" *I don't believe I can do any good,' said the 
Doctor. 

" 'If you can't, nobody can,' replied father, 
and he stuck to it. 

"Finally the Doctor said, 'Since you are so ob- 
stinate about it, I will take care of you on one 
condition, and that is that you will do exactly 
what I tell you, no matter how hard the treat- 
ment seems.' As soon as father promised, he con- 
tinued : — 

" 'AH right then, my first orders are that until I 
come and tell you to stop, you will eat only one 
meal a day, and that to consist exclusively of rye 
meal pudding, without sugar, or milk, or salt, or 
any other fixings.' 

"For several weeks father did exactly as he 
was ordered. He said he felt as though he was 
starving to death, but he stuck it out. Pretty soon 
he began to sleep at night, — although he dreamed 

[33] 



LEONARD WOOD 

constantly of being hungry, and of sitting down 
to sumptuous dinners, and of having them 
snatched away just as he was beginning to eat. 

"At the end of two weeks Doctor Wood 
came to see him again and told him he could 
now begin to eat three meals a day, but that as 
long as he lived he must never again eat pies, 
flapjacks, or heavy pastry, nor drink water with 
his meals. 'And take time to eat,' said the Doc- 
tor. *If you obey these rules, you will never be 
sick again until you die of old age.' Father did 
keep them and he lived to be eighty-seven, and 
worked almost to the last. 

'The Woods were a family possessed of 
perseverance and constitution," continued Cap- 
tain Ed. "I guess those two words describe them 
better than anything else. They were always 
more all-fired persistent than anybody else, and 
once they started, they always had the endurance 
to see it through. 

"When Leonard and Jacob went gunning they 
left home early, kept going all day, and didn't 
get back until after dark. The other boys didn't 
much like to go with them; it was too much like 
work. 

"And if old Doctor Wood hadn't had that sort 
of a constitution, he would have taken sick within 
a year or two, like a young doctor we had here 
recently. For you want to remember that along 
from 1865 to 1880 there weren't any automobiles 
for a country doctor to get around in. 

[34] 



ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

"Doctor Wood had all the practice in and 
around Pocasset and he used to drive a great 
many miles each day ; six miles up to North Fal- 
mouth, eight miles down to Sagamore, and all in 
between. His old white mare Treetchy' (Bar- 
bara Fritchie) was a regular part of the estab- 
lishment and was known all over this side of the 
Cape. The Doctor bought her as a colt when he 
first came to Pocasset, trained her himself, and 
drove her all the rest of his life. She survived 
him by twelve or fifteen years and lived to be a 
very old horse, for she did not die until she was 
thirty-three. The two Wood boys continued to 
drive her long after the Doctor was gone. 

"Frank Dimock, who was father of the two 
Dimock boys and a close friend of the Woods, 
was quite a poet ; he wrote a poem about the old 
mare, and she is so much of a tradition that the 
Cape Codders still know that song, although it's 
forty years since the Doctor last drove her. The 
chorus goes: — 

Improved with age 

From fair to good 
The neighbors called her 

Freetchy Wood. 

"The Doctor always took care of Freetchy him- 
self, and she was very faithful and industrious. 
When he had to go on long drives he put in the 
feed-bag, so that Freetchy could have her dinner 
while he was seeing the patient. He would often 
go without food himself but he always saw to it 
that Freetchy had her 'snack.' 

[35] 



LEONARD WOOD 

"Those two went through a great deal of 
trouble together, particularly driving round dur- 
ing the long cold winters. The Doctor was always 
short of sleep, and used to catch up by taking 
naps while driving home. When he had finished 
with his last patient, he would climb into his 
buggy, start Freetchy and go sound asleep. She 
always went straight back to the Wood house 
here in Pocasset; she had learned the way from 
every direction. 

^'Sometimes on lonely winter days when we 
were wood-cutting, we would see faithful old 
Freetchy plodding along the frozen roads 
towards home ; the Doctor sitting behind her in his 
single seater, all wrapped up in his buffalo robes 
and fast asleep. When the buggy stopped in his 
own front yard he would wake up. 

"Those rides were mighty lonely, and when 
outward bound the Doctor used to tie a bit of rag 
on a wheel-spoke and count the revolutions and 
calculate distances and rates from place to place 
in order to keep himself awake. His little red 
rag was the first speedometer ever used in this 
part of the country. 

"Doctor Wood was a great hand to joke," said 
Captain Ed. "He always looked on the funny 
side of everything. I don't mean he was a prac- 
tical joker, because he wasn't, but he just always 
seemed to be able to see the humor even in the 
most unpleasant situations. 

"One day he was at the depot waiting for the 

[36] 



ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

train, which was very late. Some one said to 
him: 'Well, Doctor, how are your patients to- 
day?' 'Nearly exhausted,' he replied, 'waiting 
for this train.' 

"Back in 1875, when he had just finished his 
fine new house, one of the neighbors was joking 
him about it and said, 'Doctor, what for is that 
flat place on top with a rail round it?' 

" 'Why,' said the Doctor, 'that is where I am 
going to stick on a mortgage if I ever need one, 
and the railing is to keep any one from getting 
at it to foreclose it/ 

"One day he was sailing across the bay to On- 
set Beach with Leonard. Leonard was then about 
eight years old, and was handling the tiller. An- 
other boat came along cutting in on their course. 
'Give 'em more room,' said the Doctor. 'But we 
have the right of way,' said Leonard. 'I know 
it, but I'd rather forego my rights than spend the 
night out here with my mouth full of sea-weed,' 
returned his father. 

"Perhaps I have told you enough about the 
Doctor, and you want to hear what I think about 
Leonard. 

"There's one thing I particularly like about 
him, and that is that no matter how elevated he 
gets, he never changes any towards his old 
friends. I hadn't seen him for a good many 
years after he left here to go to Medical School; 
I was mostly away at sea, and he wasn't often in 
Pocasset, being always so busy. Finally after 

[37] 



LEONARD WOOD 

about twenty years I moved to Brooklyn on ac- 
count of being master of a ship sailing out of 
New York. 

"He was stationed at Governor's Island and 
one day I decided to telephone him. Some sol- 
dier I didn't know answered the phone. I asked 
for Leonard Wood, and pretty soon I heard an- 
other voice I didn't recognize, and I said again, — 
*I want to speak to Leonard Wood,' and the voice 
answered : — 'This is Leonard Wood.' 

" 'This is Ed Barlow.' 

" *Ed Barlow, Ed Barlow?' he said twice, 
thoughtful like, and then after a second, Tt's just 
twenty-three years since I last heard your voice.' 
I was kind of dumbfounded, because / couldn't 
recollect to save my soul when I had seen him 
last. T only have one day to myself and that's 
Sunday,' he said, 'come over and see me next 
Sunday.' And I went and we spent four or five 
hours together." 

Captain Barlow and I drove to Cataumet to 
see Captain Gibbs, who had also gone to school 
with Leonard and who proved to be one of the 
most interesting sea captains I have ever met. He 
seemed to think that Leonard Wood had not as 
a boy been ''much to look at." He said, "He 
had a strong and stocky build, light blue eyes, and 
a shock of whitish hair, lighter than yellow, about 
the color of raw hemp. He looked like any other 
boy except for his hair. 

"Leonard was more fond of shooting and fish- 

[38] 



ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

ing than the rest of us. He was a quiet sort of 
a boy who didn't have much to say for himself. 
He didn't hang around much with the other boys, 
and you would hardly know how to get him into 
a quarrel. But when he did get into a fight, his 
face sort of lit up; and he wasn't ever afraid of 
anything. 

"I remember when he first came here, Frank 
Dimock and I laid for him, but he whipped the 
two of us. He blacked my eye and cut Frank's 
lip. Up to that time we boys always wrestled 
when we got into a fight, but Leonard introduced 
the new method." 

Captain Irving meditated a moment, and then 
added, "I will say this for myself, that at the time 
Leonard whipped me I was most a year younger 
than him, but Frank was his age and size. 

^'Leonard always had lots of character, even as 
a boy. He got that from his father and mother. 
It was in the family and was born in him. They 
were all mighty persevering. 

"He was a great hand to read. That was dif- 
ferent from all the rest of us, and from his own 
brother, too, for we never read if we could help 
it. He used even to take books with him when 
he went fishing. He would sit in a center-board 
skifif and fish with one hand and turn pages with 
the other, using rocks for paper-weights. He 
used to read history and books about travel and 
exploration. I remember him reading Cooper's 
novels and a book called "Plutarch's Lives." I 

[39] 



LEONARD WOOD 

wouldn't be surprised if that was the foundation 
of his knowledge and education. 

''In school he didn't work any more thsin the 
other boys, but he grasped things quicker. Al- 
though he seemed to drift along just the way the 
others did, he outgrew the little school in no time, 
and when he was sixteen he started going to 
Pierce Academy, in Middleboro, fifteen miles 
from here. He went up every morning on the 
train, and came back the same way at night. 

"Yes, in school he drifted along like the other 
boys, but when the time came for him to do some- 
thing, he woke up. And that time came in the 
spring of 1880, when his father died." 

Leonard Wood had decided to study medicine, 
but wanted to go through Harvard College first, 
his father having convinced him that it would be 
a help not only in medical school but ever 
afterwards. But when he lost his father in 1880, 
a shortage of funds compelled him to skip col- 
lege and go direct to the Harvard Medical School 
that same autumn. 

He began preparing for the examination under 
the instruction of Miss Haskell, who was an ex- 
ceptional woman of unusually fine character. She 
was thoroughly grounded in classics, modern lan- 
guages and mathematics, and had been the head 
of a large finishing school, but found herself 
unable to endure the strain and had first come to 
Cape Cod to recuperate, afterwards remaining 

[40] 



ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

there for a number of years. She boarded that 
summer with Mrs. Charles Wood so that she 
could more conveniently tutor Leonard. Much 
to everybody's surprise he passed the entrance ex- 
aminations and stood high, although most of 
those with whom he competed had already been 
through college. 

He left Pocasset when he was nineteen, with- 
out money, without friends in the outside world, 
with no influence, and with only the limited educa- 
tion he had been able to secure in the little Pocas- 
set school and at the Middleboro Academy, which 
was about equal to the high schools of to-day. 

He started with no capital except a good con- 
stitution built up by living outdoors around Cape 
Cod, a strong character which he inherited from 
his parents, and the memory of the beautiful 
home life with his father and mother. 



[41] 



CHAPTER II 

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 

Leonard Wood was fifty-nine years old on the 
ninth day of October, 1919. He is five feet, 
eleven inches tall, weighs 195 pounds and has a 
44-inch chest. His health is in every way per- 
fect. Throughout his life he has never met a man 
of his own age, and few of any age, whom he 
could not outride or outwork, and this is as true of 
him to-day as ever. 

The Board of Army Surgeons which gave him 
his physical examination when he returned from 
France in 1918, stated that he was in every way 
fit for active service anywhere. 

Every one who meets Leonard Wood is im- 
mediately impressed by his extraordinary phys- 
ical vigor. He seems so charged with surplus 
energy that one easily comprehends how he was 
able to achieve the remarkable feats of endur- 
ance recorded of him. All his life he has been 
devoted to sports and athletics and even now 
enjoys nothing so much as a twenty-five-mile ride 
or a day's shooting or fishing. When he was 
stationed at Monterey in 1890 he used for ex- 

[42] 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 

ercise to run around the soft and sandy seventeen- 
mile drive and held the record, having made the 
distance in 2 hours and 12 minutes. 

While in command of the Department of Min- 
danao he decided that all his men must learn to 
swim 75 yards with their clothes on, and 50 yards 
with full equipment. But before any order was 
issued Wood himself accomplished double the dis- 
tances prescribed, and moreover before making 
the trial thoroughly soaked the equipment. 

When he was stationed at Fort McPherson, 
Georgia, in 1896, in addition to his regular work 
as an army surgeon he took a course of study at 
the Georgia Institute of Technology, and while 
there organized and coached the first football 
team the Institute ever had. His team in its 
first season defeated the champions of the South, 
and lost only one game during the two years he 
was its captain. Starting with that impetus and 
proud of its initial reputation the Georgia Tech 
has always since then maintained a fine football 
record. 

When in 1917 Wood was transferred to the 
command of the Southeastern Department, his 
exploits as an athlete were still remembered 
throughout that section, and the great enthusiasm 
with which he was received was only in part in- 
tended for Wood the soldier, as a portion at least 
was a tribute to Wood the athlete who had 
years before brought honor to Georgia Tech. 

Soon after his arrival, he was entertained in 

[43] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Macon at a banquet given in his honor. The 
toastmaster closed his remarks by saying, "You 
have now heard me throw a lot of bouquets at 
General Wood, but the last time I saw him was 
after a hotly contested football game, in which 
he defeated my team, and I was then throwing 
bricks at him." 

Shortly after this banquet, he visited the town 
of Athens in order to address a mass meeting, 
traveling there and back in the private car of the 
president of the railroad. He was reminded that 
the last time he left Athens, in 1897, he rode in 
a freight car to escape a mob of local football 
enthusiasts who were hunting his scalp. 

At the end of another game which he had 
refereed in the early nineties, the captain of the 
losing team said to him, "The next time I see you 
I am going to knock your damned white head 
off." 

Ten years later, after Wood had become Ma- 
jor-General in the Regular Service, he was in- 
specting a one-company post in a small island 
south of Sulu in the Philippines. When he 
reached the Lieutenant in command, he imme- 
diately recognized him as the once belligerent 
football captain of the defeated Georgia team, 

and said, "Now is your chance Mr. ." The 

embarrassed Lieutenant later confessed that he 
had long since altered his views on reprisals, 
and that from the time he learned General Wood 
was coming to inspect his command his one prayer 

[44] 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 

had been that the General might fail to recognize 
him. 

Leonard Wood is an Episcopalian. 

Leonard Wood's directness and democratic 
lack of formality, his complete modesty and sim- 
plicity are among the most striking and attractive 
traits of his temperament. 

He is always approachable and has a happy 
knack of getting on harmoniously with diverse 
kinds of humans. He possesses the rare gift of 
looking a man in the eye, telling him a disagree- 
able truth, and afterward being better friends 
with him than ever. 

He has never tolerated for himself any ret- 
inues or guards of honor, even in tropical coun- 
tries where they have for centuries been the uni- 
versal setting for every man in authority. When- 
ever he has governed provinces he has not affected 
pomp, ceremony or circumstance, but has gone 
quite to the other extreme. 

In Santiago General Wood lived in the utmost 
simplicity, in striking contrast to the splendid 
luxury of his Spanish predecessors. He occupied 
a thatch-roofed country house, a mile out of town, 
which had previously belonged to the British 
Consul. Accompanied only by a single mounted 
orderly he rode each morning to his office. Which 
was a single bare room at the back of the Spanish 
Governor's old palace. His personal dignity and 

[45] 



LEONARD WOOD 

power are too great to need reenforcement by 
artificial means. 

He has no pride of opinion nor any trace of 
that extreme rigidity of conviction which makes 
a man intolerant of advice. He is always willing 
to give his open-minded attention to the views of 
others, even those of his least important sub- 
ordinates. 

Colonel Halstead Dorey, who when a Captain 
in 1903 served as an aide to General Wood, tells 
of his first impressions of his commander. 

"I joined General Wood in Mindanao, at a 
time when there was trouble brewing with the 
Sultan of Sulu. Captain McCoy, who was also 
an aide, had already been with him for four years. 
The first day I was on duty the question of the 
status of the Sultan came up for discussion, and 
McCoy expressed to the general very positive 
opinions as to how the Sultan should be handled 
• — opinions which varied greatly from those held 
by the General, who nevertheless gave them his 
full consideration. 

''Such a hot argument ensued that I fully ex- 
pected McCoy to be placed under arrest and tried 
for insubordination. 

"To my surprise, however, the general not only 
listened patiently to all that McCoy had to say, 
but even adopted several of his suggestions. 

'T quickly learned that the General always ex- 
pected his staff officers to express their opinions 
freely. He will patiently listen, and if convinced 

[46] 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 

that their ideas are correct, is always willing to 
alter his own tentative plans. 

"In discussing an old officer who had just been 
retired for age, and who made it his boast that he 
had never changed an order after he had once 
issued it, the General remarked that, while need- 
less vacillation should be avoided, any man who 
was such an egotist as to count himself infallible, 
and therefore never considered it necessary to 
change an order, even if unforeseen conditions 
arose, should never have been commissioned, 
much less permitted to remain in the service until 
he was retired for age." 

The author once asked General Wood his rules 
of life. He replied: — "Always volunteer, no mat- 
ter how dangerous or unpromising the task. 

"Once you have volunteered, never stop fight- 
ing. Do things, and don't talk about them. Dur- 
ing the process you are likely to discover oppor- 
tunity; eventually you can win through to suc- 
cess." His face widened out into its characteris- 
tic aggressive smile, "and then you will have the 
pleasure of hearing un-enterprising men who 
would never take a chance allude to your achieve- 
ments as due solely to luck and influence." 

The opportunities which he has most eagerly 
sought have been those which involved patriotic 
service to his country, for Leonard Wood's most 
dominant moral characteristic is his courageous, 
whole-souled devotion to the ideals of American- 
ism^ 

[47] 



CHAPTER III 

AS A SURGEON 

Leonard Wood supported himself through the 
four years of his course at the Harvard Medical 
School in the spring of 1884, ^^^ upon gradua- 
tion won an appointment as interne at the Boston 
City Hospital in a competitive examination, in 
which he stood third among more than a score 
of contestants. 

He did not complete his course, however, be- 
cause of an unfortunate incident which occurred 
early in his hospital experience. According to 
rule an interne was not allowed to perform an 
operation, but was required to summon the visit- 
ing surgeon whenever it was necessary. One 
day the ambulance brought in an injured child, 
whose life depended upon immediate operation; 
but the visiting surgeon was not available. Wood 
deliberated for a few moments and then decided 
that the right thing was to operate at once ; this 
he had the courage to do, regardless of the con- 
sequences to himself, and thereby saved the 
child's life. 

Later the visiting surgeon walked into the 
ward, and when he learned what had happened 

[48] 



AS A SURGEON 

in his absence, he flew into a rage and demanded 
an explanation of Wood, who answered, "If the 
child's life was to be saved there was no time to 
lose and it was necessary to operate at once. No 
one else was at hand and therefore I assumed the 
responsibility." The visiting surgeon on that 
ground preferred charges against Wood and he 
was suspended and ultimately dismissed from the 
hospital. 

When he left the City Hospital, he es- 
tablished himself in a tiny office in Stamford 
Street, in what was then one of the poor- 
est quarters of the city. He supplemented the 
meager pay which he received from his poverty- 
stricken patients by tutoring and by working in 
the nearest public dispensary. 

He often recalls with great interest his experi- 
ences of that time, and the gratitude which the 
individual tenement dwellers showed for his 
services, — a gratitude in strong contrast to their 
distaste and dislike for ordinary charity workers. 

One dark night he was stopped on a street cor- 
ner by a gang of thugs. "Wait a minute, Bo," 
they said; "who are you?" "I am the dispensary 
doctor," replied Wood. "Oh, that's different," 
they answered affably. "We're sorry to have 
bothered you." 

His experience in the slums of Boston w^as 
among the most valuable and developmental of 
his entire life, since it early brought him into 
personal contact with the hopelessly poor, and 

[49] 



LEONARD WOOD 

with their sufferings and needs. He came into 
touch with those whose entire effort is directed 
not toward winning to-morrow's bread, but is 
concentrated upon seeking bread for to-day. 

The sympathy, compassion and understanding 
which in later life he invariably showed towards 
the millions of submerged people, over whom he 
at one time or another ruled, and his infinite pa- 
tience with them in their struggles and mistakes, 
are founded upon the first-hand knowledge which 
he gained during his service in the slums of Bos- 
ton. 

In the spring of 1885 he took the competitive 
examination for the position of Assistant-Sur- 
geon in the army, ranked second in a class of 
fifty-nine, and was promptly accepted. 

He volunteered for immediate service in the 
far west, and was ordered to proceed to Fort 
Huachuca, Arizona. 

In speaking of his entrance into the Army, 
General Wood says: "While deeply interested 
in medicine and surgery, it was always my desire 
to gain active service in the line, and from the 
moment I arrived in Arizona and reported for 
duty, I took up systematically work looking to- 
wards such service. I never lost an opportunity 
for combat assignment, no matter what the tem- 
porary disadvantages. It was this course of ac- 
tion which led ultimately to recommendations by 
Generals Lawton, Graham, Miles, Forsythe and 

[so] 



AS A SURGEON 

others that I be given the Colonelcy of a volunteer 
regiment at the time of the Spanish War." 

In Arizona and New Mexico, in addition to 
his service as a surgeon, he also performed the 
functions of a combat officer. A detailed ac- 
count of this service is given in the next chapter. 

After two years' arduous service he was as- 
signed to duty in Southern California. 

It was at Los Angeles that Major-General 
Miles, the Department Commander, was thrown 
from his horse and badly injured, his leg being 
broken and crushed. The first surgeons to be 
called in recommended that the leg be amputated, 
which would have terminated the military career 
of the officer who was, at that time, America's 
leading soldier in active service. 

General Miles refused to consider this diag- 
nosis as final until he had sent for Captain Wood, 
whose reputation as a surgeon was already fa- 
vorably known to him. In spite of the adverse 
judgment of his seniors. Wood, after a care- 
ful examination, stated that he could save the 
leg. Thereupon Miles placed himself under the 
exclusive care of the young surgeon, who was as 
good as his word, for he set the shattered bones 
and readjusted the torn ligaments and tendons 
so skillfully that the General completely recov- 
ered the use of his leg, was able to walk without 
even the slightest limp, and continued to serve 
his country for nearly fifteen years. 

At Monterey Leonard Wood met Louise A. 

[51] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Condit-Smith, to whom he became engaged and 
to whom he was married in 1890. 

The avoidance of unnecessary publicity, which 
has characterized General Wood throughout his 
whole career, has been dictated not only by the 
unwritten laws of our military service, but was 
reenforced by his distaste for injecting his per- 
sonal affairs into the record of his public services. 

This reticence with regard to himself has been 
intensified whenever it touched his family. 

In this reserve he shows the same fine instinct 
which always actuated Theodore Roosevelt. No 
man in the history of America ever appeared 
more often in the daily press and current litera- 
ture than he, but no wife of any popular hero 
figured so seldom in public print as Mrs. Roose- 
velt. The powerful personal influence she radi- 
ated from their strenuous home center was im- 
mediately apparent to any one who crossed its 
threshold — but into its sacred precinct the news- 
paper reporter in his official capacity was never 
allowed to intrude. 

Leonard Wood has been similarly scrupulous 
in maintaining the distinction between his public 
and his private affairs. Only personal friends 
realize how the dignity, simplicity and harmony 
of his family life, which presupposes an able, dis- 
creet and sympathetic helpmate, have augmented 
his usefulness to his country. 

Mrs. Wood is the daughter of Colonel John 
Condit-Smith, who served in the Civil War on 

[52] 



AS A SURGEON 

General Sherman's staff, but who died several 
years before her marriage to General Wood. 

General Wood's three children already give 
promise that they will carry on the honorable and 
patriotic records of their ancestral lines. 

Subsequent to his marriage he served for sev- 
eral years as surgeon at Fort McPherson in Geor- 
gia, and in the autumn of 1895 he was ordered to 
duty in Washington, D. C. 

*"To an army surgeon Washington is a place 
full of possibilities of honor, but also a place of 
much hard work. He must attend as medical 
advisor all active and retired officers of the army 
and their families; he is official physician to the 
Secretary of War, and he shares with a navy 
surgeon the responsibility of attending the Presi- 
dent. * * * It was not long before he became 
a frequent visitor to President Cleveland and his 
family. And here in the White House, as on the 
plains, he won friends. 

*'When the administration changed and Presi- 
dent McKinley came into power. Dr. Bates of the 
navy was for six months, until his death, attend- 
ing surgeon at the White House. One night, in 
thelall of 1897, Wood received a summons from 
the President, and from that time forward he 
was the regular medical adviser to Mr. and Mrs. 
McKinley, as he was already attendant on Gen- 
eral Alger, the Secretary of War. 

**It was about this time that he met Theodore 

• By Ray Stannard Baker — McClure's — February, igoo. 

[53] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. 
They were guests at dinner with the Lowndes 
family, and they walked home together in the eve- 
ning. Their friendship was instant. Both were 
men of extraordinary vitality and activity. Both 
loved hunting, fishing, sailing, and all the vigor- 
ous outdoor sports which do so much toward 
making good men. Both knew the wild West; 
both were born with the blood of fighters hot with- 
in them. In each of them was bred the best of 
American traditions — for Roosevelt had come 
from the ancient Dutch stock of Manhattan and 
Wood was from the oldest blood of New Eng- 
land. And, more than anything else, both were 
men of high ideals and splendid ambitions. 

"Straightway the two young Americans, not 
so famous then as they were soon to be, were 
tramping together in the country, each walking 
at a gait to outdo the other and each pretending 
that he was doing nothing at all unusual." 

The eighteen years of his life, from 1880- 
1898, which Wood devoted to the study and prac- 
tice of the profession of surgery were not only 
of great value to him from an educational and 
developmental standpoint, but gave him a knowl- 
edge of medicine which was of constant use to 
him in later years and of much value to the peo- 
ple he governed. 

It made possible his sanitary reforms in Cuba 
and in the Philippines, his work in conquering 
yellow fever, his intelligent support of the fight 

[54] 



AS A SURGEON 

against leprosy and beri-beri in the Philippines, 
his improvement of the health of the troops of 
his commands and of the civilian populations 
among which they lived. 



[55] 



CHAPTER IV 

THE GERONIMO CAMPAIGN 

On the evening of July 4th, 1885, at Fort 
Huachuca in Arizona, a few miles north of the 
Mexican border, Assistant-Surgeon Leonard 
Wood reported for duty to General Crook, the 
noted Indian fighter. 

The infamous Apache chief, Geronimo, and his 
band of renegade Indians, had already been con- 
stantly on the war-path for two years, spreading 
terror and devastation all along our southwestern 
border. 

On the evening of his arrival, Wood learned 
that Captain H. W^ Lawton (later to become 
famous as Major-General Lawton) was at the 
Fort and was to leave early the next morning, 
July 5th, in command of a carefully prepared ex- 
pedition against Geronimo. 

Although no one fully foresaw the hardships, 
sufferings and dangers which this expedition 
would have to endure for nearly two years, it 
was nevertheless evident that the affair would be 
far from a picnic, and few cared to join Lawton 
if honorably they could avoid it. 

[56] 



THE GERONIMO CAMPAIGN 

It was necessary that the personnel of the ex- 
pedition should include a surgeon, and Wood, 
true to his lifelong motto always to volunteer, 
no matter how dangerous or unpromising the 
task, sought Lawton and persuaded that leader 
to accept him as surgeon in spite of his 
youth and comparative lack of experience. He 
spent the night making the necessary prepara- 
tions and left with Lawton the next morning, rid- 
ing the only available horse, a vicious unbroken 
bronco which every one else had "passed up," but 
which Wood, being the last comer, was obliged to 
accept. 

This was his first experience in horsemanship, 
for the boyhood occupations of Cape Cod had 
not included equitation, and in the Harvard Med- 
ical School he had been unable to afford riding as 
a recreation. He mastered the bronco, however, 
in spite of several unpleasant incidents. The first 
day's march covered thirty miles through the 
overwhelming summer heat of the Arizona desert, 
and for six consecutive days he was in the saddle. 
It was not until the seventh day that the troops 
halted for their first rest. 

Lawton's expedition had been in process of 
preparation for six months. As events turned 
out it was to conduct not only the most notable 
Indian Campaign since the Custer massacre, but 
was to write the concluding chapter in that long 
history of warfare with the Redman, which had 
begun with the Pilgrims at Plymouth and had 

[57] 



LEONARD WOOD 

continued almost without interruption for two 
hundred and fifty years. 

During those centuries, America's frontier of 
civilization, at first defined by the forest-edge 
surrounding the little town of Plymouth, had 
gradually been pushed back step by step. Dur- 
ing the seventeenth century, it extended itself 
laterally north and south along the coast from 
Salem to Charleston, but remained within sight 
of the sea. In the eighteenth century, through 
the period of the French and Indian Wars, it 
was pushed back to the St. Lawrence, the Mo- 
hawk and the Susquehanna. In the early nine- 
teenth century the bitter fighting on the ''Bloody 
Ground" of Kentucky and Tennessee forced it 
definitely beyond the Alleghenies, and by the mid- 
dle of the last century it had in the Northwest 
been thrust westward to the Pacific, and in the 
Southwest to the Rocky Mountains, until in 1885 
the last remaining corner of savage country 
was the section north of Mexico in the territories 
of New Mexico and Arizona. 

Since 1620 civilization had marched steadily 
forward, conquering in turn the Narragansetts 
of Cape Cod, the Pequots and Wampanoags of 
New England, the Iroquois Five Nations who 
once possessed all the country east of the Alle- 
ghenies, the Algonquins of the Ohio Valley, 
the Seminoles of the South, and the Sioux, 
Arapahoes and Dakotas of the plains. 

Indian chieftains had succeeded each other in 

[58] 



THE GERONIMO CAMPAIGN 

the losing fight of savagery and had left their 
names upon the pages of American history; 
Peksuot, whom Captain Myles Standish killed 
with his own hand; King Philip, who brought 
death and destruction to the New England Col- 
onies; Pontiac, whose conspiracy in 1763 just 
failed to destroy the settlers of New York; Queen 
Aliquigpa, to whom Major George Washington 
was once sent as an emissary; Black Hawk, 
against whom Abraham Lincoln served as an of- 
ficer of Militia in 1832; and Sitting Bull, who 
commanded the Indians at the massacre of the 
Seventh Cavalry on the Little Bighorn. 

The long record was at last drawing to a close ; 
the final chapter had been reached. Amid the 
scorching deserts and barren mountains which 
constituted the last vestige of their lost empire, 
the one still unconquered Indian tribe, the 
Apaches, stood at bay preferring death to sub- 
mission, and fighting with the aggressive, bitter 
courage of despair. Geronimo, the last Indian 
to make a name as a leader of his people, fought 
like a cornered wolf and waged war after his 
own lights, by torture, by stealthy ambush and 
sudden massacre. 

He was the descendent of a long line of Indian 
leaders who, generation after generation, had 
opposed the onward march of civilization. He 
was to find among his enemies at least one white 
officer whose Anglo-Saxon ancestors had fought 
even more steadfastly for its advancement. 

[59] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Ever since 1620 when Wood's forbears landed 
from the Mayflower to select a suitable site for 
the new colony, and fought in the famous First 
Encounter with the Indians, and since 1675, when 
Samuel Wood served in the war against King 
Philip and had his house at Groton burned to the 
ground by the enemy, ancestors of Wood, from 
decade to decade, participated as combatants in 
all our Indian wars. In the Apache War 
which we are now considering Leonard Wood 
was to become second in command of the white 
forces. 

As he rode out from Fort Huachuca, Wood 
questioned his companions as to the record of the 
savages they were pursuing. He learned that 
Geronimo's Apaches had already killed eight hun- 
dred white men, women and children and had 
spread terror over the entire Southwest. Geron- 
imo himself had killed ninety-nine white people 
with his own hand. 

His savages were so stealthy that their victims 
never had the slightest chance to defend them- 
selves, but were either massacred from ambush or 
captured by cunning ruses. To be captured by 
Geronimo was the most terrible of fates, for 
the prisoner was invariably tortured to death 
with unspeakable agonies which were frequently 
prolonged for days. The first step was to skin 
the victim alive and the last was not infrequently 
to cook him alive over red hot stones. 

[The Apaches possessed most extraordinary 

[60] 



THE GERONIMO CAMPAIGN 

endurance, and were familiar with every inch of 
the country in which they operated. When pur- 
sued, they stole horses, rode them to death, ate 
their flesh and then continued on foot over al- 
most impassable mountain ranges at a rate which 
well-nigh defied pursuit. 

Lawton nevertheless pressed forward relent- 
lessly. He began by garrisoning all the best 
water-holes along the southern border of New 
Mexico and Arizona, thus somewhat restricting 
the Indians' zone of activity. At the same time, 
mobile forces pursued them relentlessly, basing 
their operations upon the garrisons at the water- 
holes. 

Weeks grew into months. During the first 
month Lawton's men rode more than five hun- 
dred miles through the mid-summer heat of the 
desert, which often reached 125 degrees in the 
shade. Their horses died of exhaustion and were 
replaced by others. Men grew sick or were in- 
jured and new soldiers took their places. 

On one occasion, when a body of two hundred 
Indians were on the run and there seemed a 
chance of overtaking them, an advance guard 
of fifty picked men marched almost constantly on 
foot for seven days, through a country so rough 
and precipitous as to be impassable for cavalry 
or even for pack trains. They subsisted on a 
dead mule and two deer which were killed by 
their scouts, the meat being eaten without salt. 
Their efforts were crippled by the worthless shoes 

[61] 



LEONARD WOOD 

which had been manufactured by the miHtary 
prisoners at Leavenworth. After three or four 
days' marching these shoes fell apart and left 
their feet to be cut to pieces by the jagged rocks 
over which they advanced. 

Month after month the dreary grinding chase 
continued. Officers broke down, were taken sick, 
or died of exhaustion. After six months, Lawton 
and Wood were the only officers whose deter- 
mination and physique had been sufficient to keep 
them constantly at work, and who had not had 
to be replaced by fresher men. 

This pursuit is probably the most epic of its 
kind in all history. It far surpasses even the 
most classic performances of the Royal North- 
western Mounted Police of Canada, whose code 
is never to relinquish a trail, even though it lasts 
for years and leads them around the world. 

Theodore Roosevelt, in speaking of the Geron- 
imo Campaign, said: — "No one who has not 
lived in the West can appreciate the incredible, 
the extraordinary fatigue and hardship attendant 
upon this campaign. There was not much fight- 
ing, but what there was, was of an exceedingly 
dangerous type; and the severity of the marches 
through the waterless mountains of Arizona, 
New Mexico and the northern regions of old 
Mexico, whither the Apache bands finally re- 
treated, was such that only men of iron could 
stand them." 

Sometimes the pursuit passed over mountain 

[62] 



THE GERONIMO CAMPAIGN 

ranges ten thousand feet high; at other periods 
it led across the Mohave desert, the hottest and 
most desolate piece of land in all the world, whose 
floor in one place, Death's Valley, is three hun- 
dred feet below sea-level. 

It seemed to the pursuers as if Geronimo and 
his' band were gifted with supernatural powers. 
As month after month dragged by and thousands 
of miles passed beneath the weary feet of the 
soldiers, they felt as if they were struggling for- 
ward through a Dante's inferno, bent upon a 
hopeless task. Men burned themselves out with 
fatigue and many actually died from exhaustion. 
Discouragement overtook all except Lawton and 
Wood, whose valiant and determined spirits 
burned ever clearly. 

In March, 1886, when the chase had already 
lasted a little over eight months, Wood was 
placed in command of all the infantry and a part 
of the friendly Indian Scouts ; a position which he 
maintained to the end. He was preeminently fitted 
for this responsibility, and there could be no valid 
reason why a surgeon, who was interested in mili- 
tary tactics, and who was a born leader of men, 
should not serve as a combat officer in a campaign 
against savages who observed none of the rules 
of war and who in fact had never even heard of 
them. 

In such an emergency, it was of vital im- 
portance to place in authority the man by nature 
best fitted to command, irrespective of his acci- 

[63] 



LEONARD WOOD 

dental position; and it had become evident to 
Lawton that Wood was the very one for the task. 
In later years the generous Lawton said: "It 
was mainly due to Captain Wood's loyalty and 
resolution that the expedition was successful." 

When the chase had lasted uninterruptedly for 
a year, the Americans had developed a system of 
relays; units on Geronimo's trail were, on the 
march, regularly relieved by fresher forces. 

Lawton and Wood were the coordinating ele- 
ments. They worked incessantly, never leaving 
the field. 

Wood was dauntless in conquering his fatigue. 
Once while sleeping on the bare ground, a 
tarantula climbed into his clothing and when he 
awoke and disturbed it, it stung him. In many 
men this would have resulted in death, but Wood 
continued the march on foot for two days, suffer- 
ing dreadful agony, until he fell delirious and had 
to be restrained by his men from running into 
the mountains where lurking Indians might have 
captured and tortured him to death. 

The Apaches retreated craftily, watching every 
chance to cut off outposts, messengers or strag- 
glers who might become detached from the main 
body. Lawton's forces constantly followed them 
up, seeking for a decisive engagement, pushing 
forward carefully, ever on the alert for ambush, 
never for a moment able to relax their vigilance. 

Sometimes for a month or six weeks the In- 
dians would feign inactivity and would avoid 

[64] 




C.ERONIMO, WAR CHIEF OF THE APACHES 

He killed 99 white people with his own hand. 



64] 




LEONARD WOOD, AT THE TIME OF THE GERONIMO CA3IPAIGN 



[65 



THE GERONIMO CAMPAIGN 

every contact ; then suddenly attack some isolated 
ranch-house or outpost at the most unexpected 
moment and under conditions most disadvan- 
tageous for the whites. At other times they 
would maintain a constant guerilla warfare, 
while cleverly avoiding a battle in which any con- 
siderable number of Indians could be engaged. 

It was at times like these that Wood repeatedly 
left the expedition, alone, to carry messages for 
reenforcements or to communicate with bases 
of supply. One day when the expedition was in 
the burning desert and had already made a 
march of twenty- five miles, it became necessary 
for Lawton to send a message to another force 
nearly thirty-five miles away. On several previous 
occasions his messengers had been cut off and 
captured by the watching Apaches. Wood vol- 
unteered to undertake the trip and left the camp 
as soon as darkness had set in. He made his way 
thirty-five miles through a country infested with 
Indians and almost devoid of cover, delivered his 
message at two in the morning, departed almost 
immediately with the answer, and completed the 
return journey before eight o'clock the same 
morning, making a distance of nearly seventy 
miles during the hours of darkness. He then 
resumed his command and, without any chance 
for rest, completed the next day's advance on foot, 
a forced march of more than thirty miles, thus 
covering nearly one hundred and twenty-five miles 

[65] 



LEONARD WOOD 

in thirty-six hours, without sleep and through a 
rough and dangerous country. 

The campaign had lasted nearly eighteen 
months before the troops were finally able to close 
with the Indians in any decisive engagement. 
Lawton's scouts at last succeeded in locating the 
camp of the Apaches, at a time when all the vari- 
ous elements of the warring tribes had united in 
one place. A carefully conducted forced march, of 
a type which had already failed a hundred times, 
was tried for the one hundred and first time 
and succeeded. This happened on the Yaqui 
River in the district of Montezuma. The In- 
dians for once had no warning of the impending 
attack until the very last moment, and the braves 
escaped into the rocks with only what they at 
the moment happened to have on their backs, 
many of them being forced to abandon even their 
firearms. Their equipment and tepees, their am- 
munition and horses were all captured. 

This was the beginning of the end, for this de- 
feat of the Apaches occurred in the most barren 
and uninhabited part of Arizona, where it was 
next to impossible for Geronimo to obtain new 
arms and ammunition, or to secure fresh mounts, 
and where even game was exceedingly scarce. 

The Indians nevertheless fought on for 
months. They divided into small bands which 
had separately to be pursued but which could be 
united by Geronimo whenever he planned a coun- 
ter-attack. Even in this most desolate desert, 

|[66] 



THE GERONIMO CAIMPAIGN 

short of arms and without horses, they yet 
seemed able to eke out an existence, subsisting on 
cactus leaves, roots, rats, lizards, and snakes; in 
the emergency nothing came amiss to their 
ostrich-like digestions. 

The inevitable end, however, was now in sight, 
for even the iron constitutions and fanatical de- 
termination of the Apaches could not forever 
hold out against troops working in relays with an 
endless supply of men to replace casualties, co- 
ordinated and directed by such indomitable 
leaders. 

After the loss of their horses and equipment, 
band after band of Indians were captured until 
finally in April, 1887, twenty-one months from 
the beginning of the campaign, Geronimo himself 
gave up the fight and surrendered with all his 
surviving warriors. 

The people of New Mexico, who had suflfered 
for years from the murders and depredations of 
Geronimo, celebrated his capture with three 
weeks of festivities at Albuquerque, given in 
honor of the men who had run him down. 

Thus ended the last American Indian cam- 
paign. 

Wood had won for himself a reputation as a 
soldier, not only in the regular army, but with 
the population of the far West and Southwest. 
His name, second only to that of Lawton's, was 
on every lip. 

Roosevelt first heard of him at this time, nearly 

[67] 



LEONARD WOOD 

ten years before they ever met. Later, in com- 
menting upon Wood's part in the campaign, he 
said: 

"The young doctor, tall, broad-chested, with 
his light-yellow hair and blue eyes, soon showed 
the stuff of which he was made. Hardly any of 
the whites, whether soldiers or frontiersmen, 
could last with him; and the friendly Indian 
trailers themselves could not wear him down. . . . 

"On expeditions of this kind, where the work 
is so exhausting as to call for the last ounce of 
reserve strength and courage in the man, only 
a very high type of officer can succeed. Wood, 
however, never called upon his men to do any- 
thing that he himself did not do. They ran no 
risk that he did not run; they endured no hard- 
ship which he did not endure ; intolerable fatigue, 
intolerable thirst, never-satisfied hunger, and the 
strain of unending watchfulness against the most 
cruel and dangerous of foes; through all this 
Wood led his men until the final hour of signal 
success. When he ended the campaign, he had 
won the high regard of his superior officers not 
merely for courage and endurance, but for judg- 
ment and entire trustworthiness. A young man 
who is high of heart, clean of life, incapable of 
a mean or ungenerous action, and burning with 
the desire to honorably distinguish himself, needs 
only the opportunity in order to do good work for 
his country. . . ." 

Although Wood crowded into this period of 
[68] 



THE GERONIMO CAMPAIGN 

two years his entire experience as a junior line 
officer, he nevertheless won every honor in the gift 
of his subordinates and superiors. He received 
not only the enthusiastic devotion of his men, the 
admiration of the Western public, and the Con- 
gressional Medal of Honor, but was mentioned 
in orders by all his superiors. 

In his report of the campaign, Captain Lawton 

said: 

"I desire to invite the attention of the depart- 
ment commander to Assistant Surgeon Leonard 
Wood, the only officer who has been with me 
through the whole campaign. His courage,^ en- 
ergy, and loyal support during the whole time, 
his .encouraging example to the command when 
work was the hardest and prospects darkest, his 
thorough confidence and belief in the final success 
of the expedition, and his untiring efforts to make 
it so, have placed me under obligations so great 
that I can not express them." 

In 1894 Lawton repeated his commendation to 
his commanding officer, Major-General Miles, in 
the following terms : 

''Concerning Captain Leonard Wood, I^ can 
only repeat what I have before reported officially, 
and what I have said to you; that his services 
during that trying campaign were of the highest 
order. I speak particularly of services other than 
those devolving upon him as a medical officer; 
services as a combatant or line officer, voluntarily 
assumed. He sought the most difficult and dan- 

[69] 



LEONARD WOOD 

gerous work, and by his determination and cour- 
age rendered a successful issue of the campaign 
possible." 

And still later, in a letter to the Governor of 
Massachusetts, Lawton said: 

"I have served through the war of the rebel- 
lion, and in many battles, but in no instance do I 
remember such devotion to duty or such courage 
and perseverance. It was mainly due to Captain 
Wood's loyalty and resolution that the expedi- 
tion was successful." 

Major-General Miles, endorsing Lawton's com- 
mendation, wrote as follows : 

"Assistant Surgeon Wood accompanied Law- 
ton's command from the beginning to the end. 
He not only fulfilled the duties of his profession 
in his skillful attention to disabled officers and 
soldiers, but performed satisfactorily the duties 
of a line officer, and during the whole extraordi- 
nary march, by his example of physical endur- 
ance, greatly encouraged others, having volun- 
tarily made many of the longest and most diffi- 
cult marches on foot." 

Subsequently General Miles sent the following 
commendation to the Secretary of War: 

*'I now most earnestly renew the recommenda- 
tion, calling especial attention to the letter of 
Colonel Lawton, which describes one of the most 
laborious, persistent, and heroic campaigns in 
which men were ever engaged, and the fact that 
Captain Leonard Wood, Assistant Surgeon, vol- 

[70] 



THE GERONIMO CAMPAIGN 

unteered to perform the extraordinarily hazard- 
ous and dangerous service is creditable to him 
in the highest degree. For his gallantry on the 
13th of July in the surprise and capture of Geron- 
imo's camp, I recommend that he be brevetted 
for his services on that date." 

His work in the Geronimo campaign was the 
first big step upward in Wood's career, and ten 
years later when there was a shortage of ex- 
perienced officers to command the volunteer units 
in the Spanish War, it led to his selection as Colo- 
nel gf the First Volunteer Cavalry, better known 
to fame as the "Rough Riders." 

It has sometimes been said that Wood was 
made Colonel of the First Volunteer Cavalry by 
"pull." Nothing is farther from the truth, for 
the Rough Riders were recruited from New Mex- 
ico, Arizona and the Indian Territory, the very 
country in which Wood had campaigned against 
Geronimo, and where his military reputation was 
favorably known to every settler and cow- 
puncher. He was the one man best suited to 
command a regiment recruited from this ter- 
ritory. 



[71] 



CHAPTER V 

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

To Leonard Wood's willingness always to vol- 
unteer, no matter how dangerous or unpromising 
the task, and to his dictum to do things and not 
talk about them, must be added a third and cap- 
ping characteristic in the structure of his suc- 
cess, — his extraordinary faculty of foreseeing 
the general nature of his future opportunities 
to serve his country and of preparing himself to 
meet them. 

In several instances the greatest successes of 
his life have been directly due to this faculty. 
Long before the Spanish War began, he fore- 
saw the possibility that he might be appointed 
to command a volunteer organization, and also 
foresaw the impending lack of military equip- 
ment; he therefore took steps to get supplies for 
his organization before the rush began. As a re- 
sult of this foresightedness the Rough Riders 
were the only volunteer cavalry regiment which 
was ready for action in time to fight at San Juan, 
the only major battle of the whole war. It is in- 
teresting in this connection to recall Lincoln's dic- 
tum: — "He who does something at the head of 
one regiment will eclipse him who does nothing 
at the head of a hundred." 

[72] 



THE SPANISH-AIMERICAN WAR 

While the great majority of his fellow-country- 
men were still maintaining that hostilities would 
be unnecessary, Wood clearly realized that war 
was inevitable. He was convinced that his coun- 
try would not much longer tolerate the abuses 
perpetrated by Spain in Cuba. Accordingly he 
set out not only to create an opportunity to serve 
in the coming crash, but also prepared himself to 
meet that opportunity successfully. 

President McKinley had faith in Wood's ster- 
ling character and in his ability, for he was fa- 
miliar with his past record not, only as a success- 
ful surgeon, but also as a competent soldier in 
the campaign against Geronimo. 

Roosevelt, in describing his conversations with 
Wood at this epoch, said: "We both felt very 
strongly that such a war would be a righteous 
one, and would be advantageous to the honor and 
the interests of the nation; and after the blowing 
up of the Maine J we felt that it was inevitable. 

"We then at once began to try to see that we 
had our share of it. . . . 

"At first we had great difficulty in knowing ex- 
actly what to try for. We could go on the staff 
of any one of several Generals, but we much pre- 
ferred the line. Wood hoped he might get a 
commission from his native State of Massachu- 
setts. . . . 

"Our doubts were resolved when Congress, up- 
on the suggestion of Senator Warren, author- 
ized the raising of three cavalry regiments from 

[73] 



LEONARD WOOD 

among the wild riders and riflemen of the Rockies 
and of the Great Plains." 

Roosevelt and Wood were offered the Colo- 
nelcies of two of these regiments, but Roosevelt 
doubted his own ability to fulfil such a command 
until he had had more extensive military experi- 
ence. His attitude was that of a generous and 
patriotic soul, unwilling to jeopardize the lives 
of American soldiers or the interests of his coun- 
try for his own personal advancement. He pre- 
ferred to serve as second-in-command under 
Wood, in whose experience and ability he had 
implicit confidence. 

''Secretary Alger," writes Roosevelt, "offered 
me the command of one of these regiments. . . . 
Fortunately, I was wise enough to tell the Secre- 
tary that ... I would be quite content to go as 
Lieutenant-Colonel, if he would make Wood 
Colonel. 

"This was entirely satisfactory to both the 
President and Secretary, and accordingly Wood 
and I were speedily commissioned as Colonel and 
Lieutenant-Colonel of the First United States 
Volunteer Cavalry." 

Hundreds of new regiments were being called 
into existence by the United States Government, 
but there was not equipment for a tenth that num- 
ber. For every ten regiments which could be im- 
mediately fitted out there were ninety which would 
have to wait many months while new supplies 
were contracted for, manufactured and delivered. 

[74] 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

But for a regiment to wait that long meant that 
it would miss the first campaigns and in all prob- 
ability the whole war. 

Gradually it began to dawn on the various 
regimental commanders that they were in for a 
race to see who would first obtain what little 
equipment there was on hand. 

From the very beginning Wood had clearly 
understood the situation and with characteristic 
foresight had obtained a correspondingly early 

start. 

He had not only sensed the inevitable compli- 
cations before any one else realized them, but 
had carefully prepared all the requisitions for the 
equipment of a regiment, and had made a study 
of the location of the various depots throughout 
the United States where the supplies could be 

obtained. 

When he was commissioned Colonel he needed 
only three days to amend his papers exactly to 
fit the requirements of the Rough Riders, bring- 
ing everything up to date and even writing out 
the telegrams which would need to be sent out by 
the President directing the Governors of Arizona, 
New Mexico and Indian Territory to issue the 
call for recruits. Each paper required only the 
signature of the Secretary of War to become an 
official order issued in the name of the President. 

When all these papers were ready Wood took 
them in one lot to Secretary Alger, who said in 
surprise: "If more men would only do things 

[75] 



LEONARD WOOD 

instead of talking about them, the army would 
soon be organized." 

He promptly signed all the papers, and Wood 
was off to get the full equipment for his regi- 
ment from the various supply depots and arsenals, 
before other Colonels had even figured out the 
rules of the game. 

He obtained the new Krag rifles for the Rough 
Riders, the only volunteer regiment armed with 
this up-to-date weapon. 

Wood had been commissioned Colonel of his, 
then non-existent, regiment on May 8th. On 
May 2 1 St the regiment, organized, trained and 
fully equipped, had been completely mustered into 
the Federal Service. It left its mobilization cen- 
ter in San Antonio, Texas, and was on its way to 
Cuba on May 30th. 

In three weeks he had recruited, enlisted and 
assembled a thousand men and had obtained for 
them, their horses, rifles, pistols, ammunition, 
clothing, shelter tents, haversacks, saddle equip- 
ment, food, medical supplies and a thousand other 
items of equipment, and had welded all into a cav- 
alry regiment with splendid morale. 

His resourcefulness, inventiveness and persist- 
ency overcame every obstacle and broke through 
even the red-tape of the Ordnance Department. 

A little more than three weeks later, on June 
24th, the regiment, the product of Wood's organ- 
izing ability, was put to the supreme test of 
battle, and in a difficult, tactical operation was 

[76] 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

able to take the offensive and decisively defeat 
twice its number of Spanish regulars, acting on 
the defensive in prepared trenches in their own 
country. 

The regiment arrived at Tampa on June 4th, 
after a weary four days trip by rail. The horses 
and mules had been unloaded and exercised every 
day of the journey, and as a result not one died 
or was taken sick. At Tampa the regiment "dis- 
embarked into a perfect welter of confusion. 
Tampa lay in pine-covered flats at the end of a 
one-track railroad, and everything connected with 
both military and railroad matters was in an al- 
most inextricable tangle." * 

There seemed to be no one in authority and 
there were no orders as to where the regiment 
was to camp. There was little food, and in or- 
der to feed their men, the officers were obliged to 
buy food and pay for it out of their own pockets. 

After a week at Tampa, during which Wood 
found time not only to rest his men and horses, 
but to have numerous mounted drills, telegraphic 
orders wxre received that the expeditionary force 
was to sail from Port Tampa the next morning 
for some unknown destination. The Rough 
Riders were to go with it, but were to leave their 
horses behind, together with four of their twelve 
troops which were to take care of the animals. 
The other eight troops were to entrain at a cer- 
tain track at midnight. 

* By Theodore Roosevelt. 

I77] 



LEONARD WOOD 

The regiment was at the appointed place on 
time, but the expected train never appeared. 

At three in the morning, new orders were re- 
ceived, requiring the regiment to go to a differ- 
ent track. Here also the train failed to appear, 
but at six o'clock some empty coal cars came 
along, going in the opposite direction. Wood 
held up this train and in a good-natured way 
induced the engineer to take the regiment on 
board, and then back his train the nine miles to 
Port Tampa. By this expedient they finally ar- 
rived at their port of departure. 

But there the same comedy of inefficiency con- 
tinued. For hours, Wood and Roosevelt en- 
deavored to ascertain what transport they were 
to take, and where and when they were to 
embark. Eventually, by persistence, they suc- 
ceeded in getting themselves assigned to the S. S. 
Yucatan. It was soon discovered, however, that 
this ship, with a capacity to accommodate one 
regiment only, had already been assigned to the 
Second Regular Infantry and the Seventy-First 
New York Volunteers in addition to the Rough 
Riders. 

Colonel Wood hunted up a launch, and per- 
suaded the officer in charge to take him out to the 
Yucatan, which was still in mid-stream, but was 
preparing to dock. He boarded the ship and held 
possession ; meanwhile Lieutenant-Colonel Roose- 
velt went back to get the regiment and double- 
quicked it to the wharf. 

[78] 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

When the other two regiments eventually ar- 
rived they found the Rough Riders in full pos- 
session of the transport with almost no room left 
for more passengers. Space was eventually 
made for Colonel Wherry and two companies 
of the Second Infantry. 

The first American expeditionary force sent to 
Cuba consisted of one Army Corps under Gen- 
eral Shafter, consisting of eighteen regular in- 
fantry regiments, three volunteer infantry regi- 
ments, five regular cavalry regiments (dis- 
mounted), one volunteer cavalry regiment (the 
Rough Riders, dismounted), six batteries of 
regular artillery, and a battalion of regular engi- 
neers. 

Hundreds of volunteer regiments were author- 
ized during the war, but only four eventually 
reached Cuba before hostilities had practically 
ceased. The First Volunteer Cavalry or Rough 
Riders was the only unit of its class to take part 
in the battles of Las Guasimas and San Juan. Of 
its five hundred members who landed in Cuba, one 
hundred and forty-two were killed or wounded, 
a ratio of casualties not exceeded by any other 
regiment, 

Shafter's Army Corps consisted of three divi- 
sions. The First commanded by General Kent, 
and the Second by the same General Lawton who 
had been Wood's chief in the Geronimo Cam- 

[79] 



LEONARD WOOD 



paign. Each infantry division was composed of 
three brigades of three regiments each. 

The Cavalry Division (dismounted) was com- 
manded by Major-General Joe Wheeler, the fa- 
mous Confederate Cavalry leader, who was sec- 
ond in rank to Shafter. His division, which con- 
sisted of two brigades of three cavalry regiments 
each, was made up as follows : 

Cavalry Division 
Major General Wheeler, Commanding. 
While Gen, Wheeler was sick with fever he was suc- 
ceeded by Brig.-Gen. Sumner. 
1st Cavalry Brigade 2nd Cavalry Brigade 

Brigadier-General Sum- Brig.-Gen, S. B, M. 



ner, Command'g. 
When Gen, Sumner 
took command of the 
Division he was suc- 
ceeded by 
Colonel Henry Carroll. 
When Col. Carroll was 
wounded he was suc- 
ceeded by 
Lt.-Colonel Hamilton, 

who was killed. 
This brigade was com- 
posed of 
3rd Regular Cavalry 
6th Regular Cavalry 
9th Regular Cavalry 
(colored) 



Young, Command'g. 
When Gen. Young suc- 
cumbed to fever he was 
succeeded by 
Colonel Leonard Wood 
(promoted Brig.- 
Gen.) 
When Gen. Wood be- 
came Gov. of Santiago 
he was succeeded by 
Lt.-Colonel Roosevelt 

(promoted Colonel) 
This brigade was com- 
posed of 
1st Volunteer Cavalry 
1st Regular Cavalry 
loth Regular Cavalry 
(colored) 



[80] 




CHAPLAIN BROWN 

of the "Rough Riders" 
MAJ.-GEN. WHEELER BRIG.-GEN. WOOD 
Commanding Commanding 

Cavalry Division 2nd Cavalry Brigade 

COL. ROOSEVELT 
Commanding 
OFFICERS OF THE CAVALRY DIVISION 1st Volunteer Cavalry 




Leonard Wood and his eldest son 
at the epoch of the Spanish War 



80] 




CHAPLAIN 
BROWN 



COL. COL. 

ROOSEVELT WOOD 



CHAPLAIX BROWN PREACHING TO THE ROUGH RIDERS 



[81 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

Shafter's Corps disembarked on June 226. at 
the beach of Daiquiri, about thirty miles east of 
the mouth of Santiago harbor; a force of about 
500 Spaniards was driven inland by a bom- 
bardment from the fleet, so that the landing 
proceeded without opposition. It was the in- 
tention to advance westward along the coast to 
Santiago, the left of the army resting on the sea 
and the right on the high, impassable country 
inland. 

The next day, June 23d, the Corps moved for- 
ward along the coast about ten miles to Siboney, 
where in the evening it first gained contact with 
the main body of the Spanish forces defending 
Santiago. 

During the night plans for throwing back the 
enemy were made by Major-General Wheeler, 
commanding in the absence of General Shafter 
who was still on shipboard. Reconnaissance by 
Cuban scouts had demonstrated that the Span- 
iards were holding a strong position about four 
miles beyond Siboney, and were there confidently 
awaiting the American attack. 

Brigadier-General Young's 2nd Cavalry Bri- 
gade, to which the Rough Riders belonged, was 
ordered to lead the attack at dawn. The rest of 
the Corps was to follow them into battle. 

The country was mountainous and covered 
with forests, which in certain spots were very 
dense. From. Siboney a main road led up the 
valley towards Santiago. This was the shortest 

[81] 



LEONARD WOOD 

route to the enemy's position. Another road, 
really little more than a trail, branched off to the 
left just outside Siboney, climbed the hills along 
the left side of the valley, followed their sum- 
mits for several miles, and then descended into 
the valley again to join the main road at a dis- 
tance of a little more than four miles. 

The enemy's position was in front of the final 
junction of these two roads, at a place called Las 
Guasimas. A force which could make its way 
along this mountain trail would be able to strike 
the enemy's right flank and, if successful in its 
attack, would outflank the main Spanish position 
and bring about a general retreat. 

General Young decided to lead two of his regi- 
ments forward along the main road to make a 
frontal attack, while his third regiment took the 
longer, steeper and rougher hill road towards 
the enemy's flank. 

Colonel Wood sought this more difficult mis- 
sion, and at a midnight council of war was se- 
lected by General Young to take the hill trail with 
his regiment. 

At a quarter before six, on the morning of 
June 24th, Young's brigade marched out of Sib- 
oney, Young himself with eight troops of regu- 
lars and two Hotchkiss guns moving up the main 
road, followed by the rest of the regular troops 
as reserves. 

Wood, with the eight troops of the Rough 
Riders and two Colt guns, took the hill trail to 

[83], 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

the left, the two forces marching towards the 
Spaniards on parallel routes about a mile and a 
half apart. 

Eight o'clock had been tentatively set by Gen- 
eral Young as the hour for their joint attack. 
The head of his main column, having the shorter 
and easier route, sighted the Spaniards in their 
trenches at about half-past seven. Young, who 
was with his advance guard, restrained his men 
from firing and halted his main body for half 
an hour without disturbing the Spaniards, so 
that Wood might have time to reach his objec- 
tive, the enemy's right flank. 

Meanwhile Colonel Wood had been pushing 
forward at a rapid rate. He handled his regi- 
ment with faultless perfection. Assuming the 
correct military formation, he threw out an ad- 
vance guard of one troop, so that in case of an 
unexpected ambush, or a head-on collision with 
an aggressive advancing enemy, not more than 
one-eighth of his force would be involved in a 
surprise. He led this troop himself, while the 
other seven troops followed in security at a little 
distance. 

For additional precaution a picked non-commis- 
sioned officer, Sergeant Hamilton Fish, and four 
men, were pushed far ahead of the advance 
guard troop, as a "point" to give ample warning 
of the presence of the enemy. 

Shortly before eight the "point" discovered the 

[83] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Spaniards, and quietly sent back word to Colonel 
Wood and to the advance guard troop. 

Wood immediately deployed this troop across 
the r^^ad, being able to do so before any firing 
commenced. He then ran back to the main body 
of his regiment and deployed three troops to the 
right of the road and three to the left, in one long 
battle line, holding the eighth troop in reserve 
under cover. Then he gave the order to advance 
and the battle line of six troops, supported by the 
two Colt guns, went forward at eight o'clock and 
the battle began. 

Thus General Young's plan was executed to 
perfection. His two forces were able to deploy 
into proper combat formation and to open the 
battle without interruption from the enemy; in 
the center and on the left wing the attack began 
simultaneously. 

Wood smashed in the Spanish right after a 
bitter fight in which he lost forty-two men, and 
in which the advance guard troop suffered most 
heavily, both the Captain of the troop and the 
Sergeant in command of the ''point" being killed. 
The regiment then turned its fire to its right, en- 
filading the enemy's main position, so that he re- 
treated in disorder, closely pursued by the regu- 
lars under Young. 

The Rough Riders followed up the Spaniards 
for a mile beyond their abandoned trenches, and 
then took up a defensive position to repel counter- 
attacks. 

[84] 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

Colonel Wood then re-ammunitioned and re- 
watered his men. Shortly afterwards the 9th 
Regular Cavalry (colored) arrived on the scene 
and reported to Wood as reenforcements. He 
pushed them through his lines to an outpost posi- 
tion, thus allowing the Rough Riders to relax 
their vigilance, to take a well-earned rest, and 
to care for their wounded. 

The gallant 9th Cavalry, which had not been 
able to leave Siboney for more than an hour after 
the Rough Riders, was most chagrined to have 
arrived too late for the battle; they were not in 
action and had no casualties. 

iTo any soldier, Wood's feat of tactics at Las 
Guasimas will immediately be recognizable as one 
of the most difficult in the lexicon of war, — 
that of leading a strong flanking detachment in 
cooperation with a main body executing a frontal 
attack. It is a move which fails far more often 
than it succeeds, and which never succeeds except 
under able leadership. The feat which Wood per- 
formed for Young at Siboney was, on a smaller 
scale, the same which Stonewall Jackson with 
equal success executed for Robert E. Lee at Chan- 
cellorsville. 

In this action the Spanish forces engaged num- 
bered about 1,500 with two field guns, while there 
were about 500 reserves not employed. The 
Rough Riders numbered about 480, and the eight 
troops of regulars which attacked along the main 

[85] 



LEONARD WOOD 

road had a total strength of some 470 officers and 
men. 

After the battle an examination of the Spanish 
position showed that the force directly opposed to 
the Rough Riders had been deployed on a front 
of 1 100 yards, — about three-fifths of a mile, — 
and that it had fired more than 100,000 rounds of 
rifle ammunition. 

During this fight Wood, realizing that soldiers 
engaging in their first battle are sometimes nerv- 
ous, deliberately exposed himself to the enemy's 
fire, in order to steady his men. Leading his 
horse, he walked up and down the firing line, en- 
couraging the Rough Riders as they lay in what- 
ever cover they could find, shooting at the Span- 
iards. 

As he directed and encouraged his men he 
passed one private who was swearing a blue- 
streak, — not an uncommon reaction with a 
soldier in his first battle. Colonel Wood at- 
tracted his attention, smiled at him, and said : — 
"Don't swear ; shoot !" whereupon the soldier im- 
mediately steadied down to his work. 

The victorious conclusion of this action, the 
first in which American soldiers fought against 
their Spanish enemies, had a tremendous efifect 
in elevating the morale of the American army 
in the field, and of the people at home, and in 
convincing them of ultimate victory. 

In Brigadier-General Young's official report of 
the action Wood was mentioned as follows: — 

[86] 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

*'I cannot speak too highly of the efficient man- 
ner in which Colonel Wood handled his regiment, 
and of his magnificent behavior in the field." 

Wood was also mentioned in the dispatches of 
Major-General Wheeler, "for gallantry in battle. 
Colonel Wood disdained to take advantage of 
shelter or cover from the enemy's fire while any 
of his men remained exposed to it — an error of 
judgment but happily on the heroic side." 

Roosevelt wrote of him: — '*No officer ever 
showed more ceaseless energy in providing for 
his soldiers, in reconnoitering, in overseeing per- 
sonally all the countless details of life in camp, 
in patrolling the trenches at night, in seeing by 
personal inspection that the outposts were doing 
their duty, in attending personally to all the thou- 
sand and one things to which a commander 
should attend, and to which only those com- 
manders of marked and exceptional mental and 
bodily vigor are able to attend." 

Wood's career as a regimental commander 
terminated with the important action at Las 
Guasimas, for shortly afterwards Brigadier-Gen- 
eral Young was taken seriously ill with fever and 
had to be returned to the United States. Wood 
succeeded him in command of the 2nd Cavalry 
Brigade, which he continued to lead until the ter- 
mination of hostilities. 

After Las Guasimas a delay of one week inter- 
vened before the battle of San Juan, the decisive 

[87] 



LEONARD WOOD 

engagement of the war. The Spaniards were 
strongly entrenched in semi-permanent fortifica- 
tions outside Santiago, and an interval of time 
was necessary for the reconnaissance of their po- 
sitions, for the bringing up of supplies and ammu- 
nition, for the making of plans of battle, and for 
the proper concentration and deployment of the 
American troops. 

The city and harbor of Santiago now lay ten 
miles ahead of the American forces, and approxi- 
mately west of their position. The city was de- 
fended by the natural barrier of the San Juan 
Hills, which extended across the path of the 
American advance, stretching from the sea on 
the left to the impassable upland jungle country 
on the right. It was the mission of Shafter's 
Army Corps to capture these hills ; once they were 
in his possession, Santiago would lie helpless at 
his feet. 

The task was an extremely difficult one, how- 
ever, as the hills were defended by permanent 
block houses and by semi-permanent trenches, 
which overlooked and commanded the low coun- 
try across which the Americans would have to 
advance in order to attack. Moreover, the San 
Juan Hills were further protected by the San 
Juan River, which ran all across their entire front 
and was at most points unfordable. 

The hills were like a castle wall ; the river like 
a moat to be crossed before the walls could be 
reached. 

[88] 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

Moreover, an isolated, fortified hill, since 
known as Kettle Hill, stood far out in front of 
the center of the San Juan Range, enfilading the 
whole front of attack and dominating the fords 
of the river. 

The Spanish position could be approached by 
three routes. First, the Siboney-Las-Guasimas- 
Santiago road, along which the Corps was en- 
camped; second, a railroad, skirting the sea on 
the American left; third, a wagon road, leading 
to El Caney on the American right. 

The attack was set for the ist of July. The 
tactics used at Las Guasimas were to be repeated. 
The main body, consisting of Kent's ist In- 
fantry Division and Wheeler's Cavalry Division, 
was to engage the enemy in front, approaching 
along the Siboney-Las Guasimas-Santiago road, 
while Lawton's 26. Infantry Division was to make 
a flank attack to the right, to smash in the Span- 
ish flank in the neighborhood of El Caney, and 
enfilade the enemy line so that the main body 
would take advantage of his confusion and carry 
the San Juan Range. As a demonstration to dis- 
tract the Spaniards' attention from Lawton's at- 
tack on the right, the 33rd Michigan Volunteer 
Infantry was sent along the coast-line railroad 
to make a demonstration on the left, supported by 
the guns of Admiral Sampson's fleet. 

Lawton's 2nd Division marched off during 
the afternoon of June 30th, and commenced 
an attack upon El Caney at 6:30 on the morn- 

[89] 



LEONARD WOOD 

ing of July ist, but his flanking movement 
was not as successful as had been Wood's 
at Las Guasimas. The Spanish positions included 
four block-houses, a stone church and a stone 
fort, which the American light field artillery was 
unable to batter down. The Spanish forces were 
commanded by the indomitable General Vara de 
Rey, who led the defense in person, who was first 
wounded and eventually hit again and killed, but 
who meanwhile inspired his men with such tena- 
cious courage that only a hundred of them es- 
caped death, wounds or capture; they held up 
Lawton's entire Division for nine hours, from 
6:30 in the morning until nearly 3:30 in the 
afternoon, so that Shafter's original plan of ac- 
tion was checkmated. 

Meanwhile Kent's ist Infantry Division and 
Wheeler's Cavalry Division had begun their 
march before daylight, eventually taking up a 
position on the near side of the San Juan River, 
and facing the San Juan Hills which lay beyond 
it. Kent's ist Infantry Division deployed into 
battle line to the left of the Siboney-Las 
Guasimas-Santiago road on a front of about two 
miles, and the Cavalry Division was placed at 
the right of the same road. The deployment was 
practically complete by 8:30, and the troops lay, 
down to await the success of Lawton's attack, 
meantime suffering heavy casualties from infan- 
try and automatic guns located on the outlying 
Kettle Hill in their immediate front, and also 

[90] 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

from long-range fire from the San Juan Hills. 
The Cavalry Division suffered most severely since 
Kettle Hill was directly in its front and only a few 
hundred yards away. 

By 9 :30, when Lawton had been in action three 
hours, the sounds of his battle indicated that he 
was making no progress and therefore from a 
tactical point of view, and as a component part of 
the whole battle, his attack was a failure. 

Wood, riding about through his brigade to 
gain an immediate, first-hand knowledge of the 
situation, found that under the withering fire of 
the Spaniards his men had already lost about 
twenty per cent, of their total number, and real- 
ized that if they stayed there an hour or two 
longer, awaiting the completion of Lawton's at- 
tack, they would be practically annihilated, so that 
Lawton, even if eventually successful, would be 
too late to save the day. Wood's clear intelli- 
gence showed him that radical action and an im- 
mediate change of plans were necessary if the 
battle were yet to be won. 

The situation was complicated by the fact that 
General Shafter, a man weighing nearly three 
hundred pounds, had been exhausted by the heat 
while making a reconnaissance the previous day, 
and in addition had suffered an attack of gout. 
He was confined to his tent the entire day 
of the battle, and was therefore unable personally 
to intervene now that Vara de Rey's heroic de- 

[91] 



LEONARD WOOD 

fense against Lawton had disrupted his original 
plan of attack. 

He was, however, represented in the battle by 
his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Miley, who was at 
the front along the Siboney-Las Guasimas- 
Santiago road. 

These facts were known to Wood, who, after 
consulting with his Division Commander, gal- 
loped over to the road at about 9:30, located 
Miley, whom he knew and for whom he had a 
high regard, and persuaded him that radical and 
desperate measures were necessary; namely, a 
direct frontal attack, without waiting longer for 
Lawton to break and turn the Spanish flank. 

In General Shafter's name, Miley gave the 
necessary permission. Wood rode back to his 2nd 
Cavalry Brigade, which was lying slightly behind 
and to the right of the other Cavalry Brigade, and 
set it in motion forward. As it went through 
the other Cavalry Brigade it picked it up, and 
the entire Cavalry Division participated in a suc- 
cessful charge on Kettle Hill which was carried 
by assault. 

After a brief interval another charge was led 
in person by Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt, who, 
taking advantage of the disorganization caused 
among the Spaniards, went on -and carried a 
section in the center of the San Juan Range. 
Simultaneously Kent's Infantry Division, re- 
leased from the Spanish fire from Kettle Hill 
and supported by the fire of several units of the 

[92] 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

Cavalry Division which remained on that hill, 
charged and carried the left section of the San 
Juan Range. The troops of the tvi^o Divisions 
then looked down upon the white walls of the 
city of Santiago, lying helpless at their feet. Its 
fall was then inevitable. It was not until several 
hours later that Lawton finally succeeded in cap- 
turing El Caney. 

Colonel Wood's gallantry and ability as a 
brigade leader at San Juan were such that Shaf- 
ter recommended him for promotion to the rank 
of Brigadier-General because he had been "so 
conspicuous for bravery and had handled his 
troops so well." This was immediately acted upon 
by President McKinley, his promotion taking 
place under date of July 8th, 1898. 

To win a Generalship by gallantry on the field 
of battle is by all odds the highest honor within 
the reach of a field officer, and was attained by 
only two others during active hostilities in Cuba ; 
— Colonel Carroll of the 6th Regular Cavalry, 
and Colonel McKibbon of the 21st Regular In- 
fantry. 

Leonard Wood's conduct at this battle showed 
that he was not the type of brigade commander 
who sits far to the rear and directs operations 
from a dugout, on the theory that his sacred 
person is too valuable to his country to be exposed 
to the enemy's fire. No matter what his rank, 
whether Major-General or Lieutenant, Wood has 

[93] 



LEONARD WOOD 

never asked his men to go into extreme peril or 
hardship without going with them. 

While commanding his brigade at San Juan 
his horse was shot, one of his two aides was 
seriously wounded, and the other killed. 

His innate democracy was demonstrated by the 
fact that, after the battle was over, he reverted 
to his profession of surgery and found time per- 
sonally to dress the wounds of more than thirty 
of his injured enlisted men. 

On that day he set a precedent for his staff 
ojfficers which he has never altered. He has 
never allowed them during active operations to 
devote their entire time to desk work at the rear, 
but has by his example encouraged them to be 
true field soldiers. In later years in the Philip- 
pines his aide-de-camps could always be found at 
the head of the most desperate enterprises. Two 
of them were seriously wounded and one gained 
the Congressional Medal of Honor. 

With the fall of Santiago, the American army 
was faced with new and very serious problems. 

Spain had expected the American invasion of 
Cuba to take place near Habana at the western 
end of the island, and when General Shafter's 
expeditionary forces landed 400 miles away at 
Daiquiri near Santiago, at the southeastern ex- 
tremity, the Spaniards were taken by surprise 
and Santiago had no reserve supplies of any 
kind. 

[94] 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

The Spanish forces, after being defeated at 
San Juan, had fallen back a disorganized mob 
into the already overcrowded tropical city and 
were there besieged by the Americans, until the 
rising tide of sickness and starvation forced them 
to surrender. 

The city was not only filled with the men of 
the disbanded Spanish Army, but was surrounded 
by undisciplined bands of so-called "soldiers" 
from the Cuban forces who were eager to mur- 
der Spaniards, and who saw no reason why the 
surrender of the enemy should be made to in- 
terfere with this purpose. 

The Generals of the American forces were ap- 
palled at the conditions of filth and disease which 
they found on entering the city, and which it was 
their duty to remedy, for the city was theirs by 
conquest and with it came the responsibility of 
administering its affairs. 

The sanitary situation was acute, and the prob- 
lem of clearing these Augean stables a truly 
Herculean one. There were over 15,000 sick in 
the population of 40,000. No one cared to as- 
sume the task of military governor except Wood, 
who volunteered. 

Because of the brilliancy of his military record 
during the preceding two months, the old, hard- 
bitten, regular officers recommended that the new- 
est and youngest brigadier of the army be granted 
his request, and allowed to attempt the seemingly 
impossible task. 

195] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Santiago, via Haiti, 
August 4, 1898. 

4:17?. M. 
Adjutant-General, U. S. A., 

Washington. 
.... I think General Wood is by far the 
best man to leave in command of this post, 
and perhaps of the whole district. If he is 
not to have the entire command, I would 
suggest Lawton as the only other man in 
every way equipped for the position 

Sh AFTER, 

Major-General. 

Thus Wood's astounding military career, which 
began against Geronimo, continued as Colonel of 
the Rough Riders, and culminated as Com- 
mander of the Second Brigade of General Joe 
Wheeler's cavalry division, lifted him to his first 
executive opportunity, and fairly launched a 
great administrative genius upon his real life's 
work. '^ 

The true significance of that career is found in 
the fact that it served him as a stepping-stone 
from the profession of surgery, which limited 
and circumscribed his peculiar abilities, and lifted 
him up to the high plane of administrative work, 
in which his executive genuis had full play, and 
through which he acquired international fame. 



[96] 



CHAPTER VI 

GOVERNOR OF SANTIAGO 

Santiago de Cuba had for more than two cen- 
turies enjoyed the unenviable reputation of be- 
ing the most pestilential and fever-ridden spot 
in the world. In olden times it was a common 
saying among merchant skippers that the city 
could be smelled ten miles at sea. 

It possessed no street-cleaning department and, 
in spite of the fact that in many localities the 
streets served not only as highways but also as 
open sewers, there was absolutely no system of 
sewage, and no plan of drainage except of the 
most accidental kind. Garbage was thrown into 
the streets, there to lie until the next tropical 
storm should wash it down the gently sloping 
Hillside upon which the city was built into the 
bay, where it floated about among the shipping, 
until it was eventually washed up on the beaches 
to decay under the burning sun. 

In the United States it is the custom to sur- 
round houses with gardens ; in Spanish- American 
towns the reverse is true; the garden is in the 
center of the house, and the house is built around 

\.97'\ 



LEONARD WOOD 

it. In Santiago, the most conspicuous and im- 
portant adjunct of this "garden" was an open 
cesspool, which was seldom if ever emptied and 
was the ultimate destination of all domestic sew- 
age, which there decayed and in time of plague 
radiated disease throughout all the household. 

The city was surrounded by malarial swamps 
and jungles, its water supply was full of typhoid 
germs, and even in normal times its death rate 
from yellow fever was the highest in the world. 
But when Leonard Wood became governor, the 
times were far from normal. The season was the 
most unhealthful of the year and the city was 
almost without water. The crowding and con- 
gestion during the siege had raised the daily 
death rate, from yellow fever alone, to one-half 
of one per cent, a day, — or five deaths daily for 
each thousand of inhabitants. The death rate 
from all causes reached four hundred a day in a 
population of forty thousand. 

So many of the city's population were ill that 
there were not enough well people to care for the 
sick. Such numbers died daily that they could 
not be buried, but lay rotting in the gutters 
among other refuse or in the empty rooms of de- 
serted houses where the bodies decayed and bred 
new pestilence. Unclean vultures waddled about 
the streets, or roosted full-fed in dismal rows 
along the house-tops until ready to lurch down 
into the street to gorge themselves anew. 

The market place was practically deserted, for 

[98] 



GOVERNOR OF SANTIAGO 

there was almost no food for sale and what little 
was offered commanded fabulous prices which 
denied it to all except the rich. Meat, which had 
formerly sold for from five to ten cents, now 
brought a dollar a pound in gold and was scarce 
even at that price. The first meal which General 
Wood ate in Santiago was at the Cafe Venus in 
the Plaza de Armas ; it cost him fourteen dollars 
gold and the piece de resistance was horse 
meat. Bread was almost unobtainable, and veg- 
etables could not be had at any price, for the 
transportation system had been disrupted during 
the military operations, and there was no way of 
carrying supplies into the city from the surround- 
ing country. 

Men and women, weak with fever and hunger, 
sat inert and hopeless upon their doorsteps. 
Gaunt children, little living" skeletons, lay apa- 
thetically in corners. 

The situation required a man of unbounded 
resource and of firm, energetic character. It 
also required a very considerable measure of spe- 
cial training. The difficulties to be overcome 
were to an equal extent sanitary, political, and 
military. The people to be dealt with had not 
the faintest idea of the first principles of sani- 
tation; and having only just been freed from 
slavery, had no training or experience in self- 
government. 

To master the situation and solve its compli- 
cated problems there was needed a man who was 

[99] 



LEONARD WOOD 

an authority on modern sanitation and medicine, 
and who was at the same time an adept in the 
control of men. Leonard Wood possessed both 
these qualifications to a preeminent degree and 
in addition was a competent soldier, a necessary 
adjunct, for the physician and law-giver would 
have been powerless unless supplemented by the 
military leader endowed with the knowledge of 
how to apply martial law; and martial law is a 
weapon which but few men are able to wield 
judiciously/ 

"The matters that first claimed Governor 
Wood's attention were the feeding of the starv- 
ing people and the amendment of the city's sani- 
tary condition. He obtained as many rations as 
possible and these were issued with a free but 
careful hand; he established food depots at vari- 
ous places; and before forty-eight hours had 
passed, actual famine had been brought to an 
end. 

"The rations which he issued arrested actual 
starvation, and very soon provisions began to 
come from the ordinary sources and by the 
ordinary ways. As the supply increased, how- 
ever, there was no diminution of prices. He sent 
for the aldermen representing the different wards 
of the city, and he also summoned the butchers. 

" 'How much do you charge for meat?' 

" 'Ninety cents a pound, seiior.' 

" 'What does it cost you?' 

* Quoted from McClure's, March, 1899. 
[100] 



GOVERNOR OF SANTIAGO 

"There was hesitation and a shuffling of feet; 
then one of the butchers said, in a whining voice : 

" 'Meat is very dear, your excellency/ 

" 'How much a pound?' 

" 'It cost us very much, and ' 

" 'How much a pound ?' 

" 'Fifteen cents, your excellency; but we have 
lost much money during the war and ' 

" 'So have your customers. Now meat will be 
sold at twenty-five cents a pound and not one 
cent more. Do you understand?' 

"Then, turning to the aldermen, he charged 
them to see that his order was carried out to the 
letter, unless they wanted to be expelled from 
office. 

"Thenceforward meat was sold in the markets 
at twenty-five cents. A similar reduction was 
made in the price of bread, vegetables, and all 
food products. ... It was the first showing of 
the master hand to the public, and confidence 
in the American methods of administration 
strengthened rapidly." 

Once the food situation had been regulated. 
Wood turned his attention to matters of sanita- 
tion. He realized that an exceedingly important 
element in the temperament of the Latin races 
is their attitude of immobility and inertia when- 
ever any improvements contrary to tradition and 
custom are suggested. Tradition is the breath of 
their life, and logic has no effect upon them where 

[lOl] 



LEONARD WOOD 

precedent is involved. When logic attacks fixed 
custom the first reaction of the Latin-American 
is Manana — ''to-morrow perhaps"; — the second 
is a passive mule-like resistance; — the third ac- 
tive opposition, which savors of the fanatic de- 
fending his convictions and beliefs. 

This resistance General Wood had to contend 
with when he first undertook to impose drainage, 
street-cleaning, and sanitary sewage-disposal 
upon the people of Santiago de Cuba. The popu- 
lar view seemed to be that if the city had for four 
centuries managed without such innovations, that 
fact was sufficient proof that Divine Providence 
did not intend their introduction at this late date. 

It is doubtful if this prejudice could possibly 
have been overcome, except under stress of mar- 
tial law, and by the initial employment of work- 
ing parties of American soldiers. It was not until 
the city had been thoroughly cleaned by the 
American troops assisted by native civil prisoners, 
and the value of the scientific sanitation demon- 
strated by results, that Wood began to receive in 
his efforts either sympathy or assistance from the 
population. 

American fatigue parties with wagons pro- 
ceeded throughout all quarters of the city collect- 
ing the dead bodies of disease-stricken men and 
animals. These being the most deadly among the 
many dangerous forms of filth were, therefore, 
the logical initial undertaking. The bodies were 

[102] 



GOVERNOR OF SANTIAGO 

carted out of the city, stacked up in piles, soaked 
with kerosene, and burned. 

It, took four days to hunt out and dispose of 
all the dead bodies ; then Wood issued the follow- 
ing order: "Every householder will report im- 
mediately to the Mayor and the Military Gov- 
ernor any death occurring in his household. Any 
person failing to do this will be arrested and put 
at hard labor on the streets for a period of thirty 
days. All policemen are ordered to report 
promptly to the Mayor and the Military Gover- 
nor all deaths, any cases of malignant fever, and 
any place which is in an unhealthy condition, 
coming under their knowledge. Failure on the 
part of any policeman to do this will be followed 
by severe punishment." 

The next step was a campaign of systematic 
street cleaning, for the fever was still on the in- 
crease, and the officers and soldiers who worked 
under Wood were decimated by it. Not a day 
passed but a score sickened and went to hospital 
to fight for life. The deaths among those who 
fought with Wood against disease in Santiago 
exceeded the total number of American deaths by 
battle in the entire Spanish- American war. Wood 
himself contracted both yellow fever and malarial 
fever before his governorship was terminated. 
But his superb constitution and his grim de- 
termination enabled him to be back at work in 
each case v.'ithin ten days of the time he was 
first taken sick. 

[103] 



LEONARD WOOD 

The American soldiers doggedly stuck to their 
task, inspired by the example of their leader, who 
outworked them all and who in his daily inspec- 
tions of every nook and cranny of the city shared 
their exposure to infection. Street after street 
was cleaned up, beginning with the most im- 
portant and ending with the by-ways. 

As soon as a street had been cleared of rubbish 
and scraped, it was treated to a liberal dose of 
chloride of lime, to disinfect the polluted ground. 
This caused loud protests from the population, 
who did not object to time-honored smells, but 
rebelled at new-fangled stinks such as chloride 
of lime. 

One of the leading citizens came to Wood's 
headquarters to make a "very grave complaint." 
It seemed that the well, from which he obtained 
his drinking water, was situated in the same yard 
with his cess-pool. The Americans had placed 
chloride of lime in the cess-pool, which permeat- 
ing the subsoil of the yard, had given an unpleas- 
ant taste to the well-water, which had previously 
been "delicious to the taste." 

The existing stock of chloride of lime and other 
chemicals soon became exhausted, and there pre- 
sently developed a most acute need of both chem- 
icals and medicines. There was, however, no 
authorized appropriation for their purchase. 
When funds were needed. General Wood was sup- 
posed to requisition for them to Habana, where 
his requisition was examined and, if approved, 

[104] 



GOVERNOR OF SANTIAGO 

forwarded to Washington, where it would be 
again examined by various departments with the 
possibility that after six months or more the 
needed money might be expected to arrive. Mean- 
while, he had plenty of money in his charge, for 
one of his duties was to collect the revenues and 
taxes of Santiago. 

These funds he was supposed to forward to 
Habana, for transmission to Washington. But 
with a plague of sickness on his hands, he boldly 
cut through all this red tape and used the money 
he collected to buy the medical supplies, which 
were absolutely necessary in conquering disease. 
He sent forward his accounts instead of the 
money, and took a chance on fighting them 
through. Meanwhile, by the prompt expenditure 
of this fund, he made the city thoroughly health- 
ful and saved thousands of lives, not only among 
the Cuban natives but also in the United States 
forces. 

While Wood and his men were feeding 
the starving, burning the dead, cleaning the 
streets and caring for the sick, they received no 
encouragement from the Cuban residents; the 
latter held aloof and never even so much as called 
at the palace to pay their respects to the new 
Governor. 

When the streets were finally cleaned, orders 
were issued against throwing into them any more 
garbage. Householders were instructed to ob- 
tain barrels for their refuse and the new admin- 

[105] 



LEONARD WOOD 

istration took steps to have these barrels emptied 
daily. Many were the protests, infractions and 
convictions which resulted. The street-cleaning 
squads were daily increased by those who had 
disobeyed orders ; for the standard sentence given 
by the military courts for breaking sanitary 
ordinances was ''thirty days' street-cleaning." 

Step by step the battle was won. General 
Wood was accused of interfering with the per- 
sonal liberty of the individual citizens when he 
required them to empty their cess-pools and have 
them thoroughly disinfected. This was too much 
for the Cuban endurance. It was bad enough for 
"these crazy Americans" to alter the century old 
privileges with regard to throwing garbage into 
the puIdHc streets, but when they actually came 
into a man's private yard, it was positively too 
much for endurance. A man's home is his castle, 
and even if he chooses to be dirty, — and oc- 
casionally sick, — is it any one's affair but his 
own? Protests and remonstrances, however, 
availed nothing for the final argument was mar- 
tial law, which the Governor never hesitated to 
use when it once became the last resort to secure a 
necessary result. 

Before the last cess-pool was properly emptied 
the street cleaners had so many "thirty day re- 
cruits" that they were ahead of the game and were 
able to take up gutter and sewer building as a side- 
line. And this logically led to street repairs and 
the laying of new pavements. The first street 

[io6] 



GOVERNOR OF SANTIAGO 

which Wood paved was the Calle Marina, the 
main street. 

It was exactly a hundred years since any of 
Santiago's streets had been re-paved. The task 
was a long one, but General Wood pushed it vigor- 
ously throughout his administration, and under 
that impetus the work continued long after his 
departure, until finally every street in Santiago 
was passable, had two gutters and at least one 
stone sidewalk. 

In spite of the press of emergency work in the 
first weeks of his governorship over Santiago, 
Wood nevertheless found time to start an inves- 
tigation of the city's water supply. The city re- 
ceived water from public hydrants every morn- 
ing, but the supply invariably gave out when the 
day was five or six hours old. 

The excentricity of the water supply was taken 
as a matter of course for it had behaved that 
way for decades; no one knew where it came 
from, nor why it gave out by noon, nor who fur- 
nished the water, nor what power caused it to 
flow. 

It was weeks before the mystery was solved, 
but eventually an American officer discovered a 
crude darn in the mountains nearly ten miles from 
the city. This dam had been built a century be- 
fore by the Spaniards, but no official had taken the 
trouble to inspect it during a decade. It was much 
in need of repairs, and water leaked out of it 
almost as fast as it flowed in. It was managed 

[107] 



LEONARD WOOD 

by an old Spanish water-tender who had received 
his last pay two years before, but had neverthe- 
less stuck to his post, too lazy to protest effective- 
ly, too lazy to stop working and hunt a new job. 

He was put on the pay-roll of the new govern- 
ment, and steps were taken to repair promptly the 
dam, stopping the leaks so that there would be 
water enough to last all day in Santiago. 

Once the acute problems of starvation and 
fever had been conquered by rationing and sani- 
tation Governor Wood turned his attention from 
these subjects of elemental physical importance to 
considerations of education and finance, wishing 
to evolve a system of Cuban law and order which 
could, at an early date, replace the arbitrary 
American rule of martial law, with its courts- 
martial and its provost guards. 

He caused a suspension in the foreclosures of 
mortgages, establishing what was, in effect, a 
moratorium to protect small shopkeepers and 
farmers from losing their property before they 
had had a fair chance to recover from the finan- 
cial derangements incidental to the capture and 
invasion of their city. 

He then devoted himself to the establishment 
and improvement of public schools, and caused 
English to be included in the curriculum. 

To prepare the way for the termination of 
martial law, he organized a gendarmerie com- 
posed of Cuban soldiers, and led by ex-officers of 
General Garcia's Cuban Army of Liberation. 

[io8] 



GOVERNOR OF SANTIAGO 

He surrounded himself with Cubans, whom he 
trusted absolutely. His personal secretary, 
through whose hands passed all his dispatches, 
reports and confidential letters, was a Cuban 
named Alexander Gonzales, who had served with 
old General Gomez, a fact which was accepted by 
the Cubans as proof positive that he had no se- 
crets from them and was at least trying to work 
for their best interests. 

Wood was always accessible to Cubans. Under 
Spanish rule it had taken great influence to see 
the Governor-General, and even then an appoint- 
ment had to be made days ahead. When Wood 
became Governor all this was changed. A 
strange Cuban would come into his anteroom, and 
say hesitatingly to an Aide-de-Camp : — 

*'Would it perhaps be possible for me to get 
an appointment to see the Governor ?" 

"Certainly. Right away?" 

"Now?" 

"Yes, this minute. There he is through those 
swinging doors. Go right in. Announce your- 
self." 

"To this day," wrote Ray Stannard Baker in 
1900, "the visitor at Santiago wonders at the 
apathy of the Cubans over the marvelous im- 
provements in their city, — its beautiful pave- 
ments, its clean alleys, its enlarged water sys- 
tem, and its reorganized hospitals. 

" 'Yes, the pavements are good,' a Cuban said 
to me grudgingly; 'but most of our people are 

[109] 



LEONARD WOOD 

just as well off without them. The asphalt hurts 
their heels.' 

'These really wonderful public works, prose- 
cuted in spite of many difficulties, have made 
General Wood famous wherever English is 
spoken; but they did not at first add appreciably 
to his glory among the Cubans. 

"There are not only many men in this or in 
any other country who could have gone into the 
Santiago of August, 1898, with its thousands of 
dead and dying, its reeking filth, its starvation, 
its utter prostration, and made of it in four 
months' time a clean, healthy, orderly city. An- 
other soldier might have been chosen who could 
have preserved order as well as did General 
Wood, a lawyer might have reorganized the ju- 
dicial system, and a physician reestablished the 
hospital, but it would not have been easy to find 
another man with the varied mental equipment 
and the requisite physical endurance to serve in 
a tropical country as lawmaker, judge, and gov- 
ernor all in one; to build roads and sewers; to 
establish hospitals; to organize a school system 
and devise a scheme of finance ; to deal amicably 
with a powerful church influence; and yet to re- 
main, in spite of such autocracy, the most popu- 
lar man in the province." 

When Governor Wood left Santiago for his 
first vacation to the United States in the spring 
of 1899, all Santiago came down to see him off, 
cheered him to the echo, and presented him with 

[no] 



GOVERNOR OF SANTIAGO 

an illuminated diploma, which read: "From the 
people of Santiago de Cuba to General Leonard 
Wood. The greatest of your many successes is 
to have won the confidence and esteem of a peo- 
ple in trouble.'* 



tin]! 



CHAPTER VII 

THE WOOD METHOD 

There is no more interesting study than the 
analysis of the methods used by America's great 
administrators and executives. Our history is 
one continuous record of their triumphs, as shown 
in the building up of organizations with which 
to conquer seemingly insurmountable difficulties, 
— physical, political and spiritual. Their successes 
now constitute the warp and woof of our na- 
tional life. Their struggles and triumphs have 
become a vital part of our public consciousness. 

Yet the methods by which our military, leg- 
islative, or economic administrators have accom- 
plished their ends, have received less attention 
than the results which they obtained, although 
from an educational point of view the methods 
are not less important of the two. For every man 
who has left a record of achievement, there have 
been hundreds who have failed to accomplish any- 
thing of importance only because each one of 
them lacked the knowledge to combine into an 
harmonious unit, numbers of men united by 
his ideals, loyal to his person, and enthusiastic 
to carry out the details of his policies. 

[112] 



THE WOOD METHOD 

Leonard Wood is one of the greatest adminis- 
trators that America has ever produced, and it 
is correspondingly instructive to analyze the sys- 
tem by which he achieved his extraordinary re- 
sults as Governor of the Province of Santiago, 
as Governor of the Island of Cuba, as Governor 
of the Moro Province, as Commander of the 
Philippines Division, as Chief of Staff of the 
United States Army, and as initiator of Officers' 
Training Camps. 

His method has already endured the two most 
severe tests to which any leadership can be sub- 
jected. On the one hand, it has lived through 
years of popular applause and general apprecia- 
tion; on the other, it has survived and con- 
tinued to produce the results he sought, during 
periods when his work was accorded almost no 
public recognition, when every possible official 
effort was systematically made to keep him in 
the background, and when reports were subtly 
spread derogatory to his mental and physical con- 
dition, to his discretion and even to his patriotism. 

That Leonard Wood steadily held together and 
added to his following, through periods of repres- 
sion and depression, is the highest possible tribute 
to his personal power and to his right of leader- 
ship. That his reputation and influence have 
steadily grown, through good and ill report, is 
high testimony to the soundness of his system. 
When one considers the high class of men who 
offer him allegiance and who look to him for 

["3] 



LEONARD WOOD 

guidance, it is a splendid tribute to his character, 
and a twice valuable evidence of the success of 
that ''Wood Method," which has become a pro- 
verb and which is so clean cut and definite that 
it might serve as a model for future organizers. 

All leaders confer, or are supposed to confer, 
with their co-workers ; but there are two distinct 
methods of utilizing such conferences. In one, 
a leader first fully makes up his own mind on 
.the questions under consideration, and then calls 
together his advisors, announces his decision, and 
measures their loyalty by the enthusiasm with 
which they acquiesce in his decision. This is a 
method which can achieve large and lasting suc- 
cess only when the age is an autocratic one, and 
the leader a superman like Napoleon or Fred- 
erick the Great. 

' The second method presupposes a leader who 
has the ability to select big men as his direct sub- 
ordinates, demanding of them only that they be 
actuated by his ideals and by the desire to work 
towards the same ultimate ends, and not that they 
shall invariably recast their minds to the mold 
of his preconceived decisions. Such a leader 
when faced with a problem calls together his ad- 
visors and associates while his own mind is yet 
in a state of suspended judgment. 

When interviewed by the writer upon this sub- 
ject, General Wood said: — 

"Every successful administrator must among 
other gifts possess two fundamental qualifica- 

[114] 



THE WOOD METHOD 

tions for leadership :— he must have the ability 
to select the men best fitted for the work as- 
signed to them, and the power so to coordinate the 
activities of the men selected that they may func- 
tion as an efifective unit. 

"An efficient executive will have his own def- 
inite policy by which his subordinates will be guid- 
ed, but to them he will leave the details of 
execution. He must have an instinctive grasp of 
the situation as a whole, and know by intuition if 
these subordinates are harmoniously working out 
his general plan. He cannot without waste of 
valuable time himself attend to details but he 
must, subconsciously as it were, be aware of the 
efficiency and faithfulness of each one working 
under him. 

"An administrator facing a multiplicity of im- 
portant problems cannot hope to know more than 
his assistants about each one of their specialties; 
presupposing, of course, that these advisors have 
been selected in a sincere effort to obtain the 
most competent men available. 

"The successful executive must seek and duly 
consider the opinions of his subordinates, and 
of men who are experts on the subjects under 
discussions. Then and then only should he begin 
forming his own conclusions. This is the judicial 
method; the truly democratic one. 
^ "It is the method necessarily used by the phy- 
sician diagnosing a complicated case of physical 

[115] 



LEONARD WOOD 

ills ; a method which can be applied quite as suc- 
cessfully to a diagnosis of public affairs. 

''The best example of this sort of leader- 
ship is, of course, Abraham Lincoln, who was 
great enough to select and hold together a group 
of men, who could furnish him with the soundest 
advice on all public questions, although several of 
them, like Secretary of War Stanton and Com- 
mander-in-Chief McClellan, were personally hos- 
tile to him and felt for him, in the beginning at 
least, neither admiration nor confidence. 

"The ability to respect and accept suggestions 
from subordinates is a fundamental principle of 
all administrative success, and not the least of its 
uses is the important part it plays in winning 
their loyal support. Their enthusiasm and loyalty 
are greatly enhanced if they are allowed to help 
formulate the plans which they are later to aid 
in carrying out. 

''Not only must a subordinate be loyal to his 
chief, but it is quite as important that a chief be 
loyal to his subordinates, and both to the Gov- 
ernment they are serving. This implies frank- 
ness and definiteness in dealing with an assistant; 
sincere and cordial support as long as he is ef- 
ficient and prompt and fearless removal as soon 
as he demonstrates his unfitness for the work 
assigned him." 

When this step becomes necessary Wood always 
courteously gives a complete explanation of his 
reasons, thus enabling the man to understand for 

[ii6] 



THE WOOD METHOD 

himself the cause of the change. He does this 
with such kindness and consideration that many 
of his most ardent supporters are men whom he 
has been obliged to remove from office. 

"No organization can continue to be success- 
ful," he says, ''unless the leader's support of 
the subordinate is contingent upon the lat- 
ter's efficiency, for the continued maintenance 
in office of an unproductive individual is pure fa- 
voritism, and favoritism will wreck the morale of 
an organization more quickly than any other ele- 
ment of decay. No personal feeling can be al- 
lowed to obscure the leader's judgment nor in- 
duce him to retain a man who has proved unable 
to accomplish the task set for him. He may keep 
as a friend but cannot retain as a co-worker one 
who proves himself too small for the job assigned 
to him." 

Leonard Wood's power to win the confidence 
of his subordinates is extraordinary. The loyalty 
which he receives is that of strong men of great 
individual ability, and often of a wide divergence 
of personal opinion, welded together by a har- 
mony of ideals and a tolerance and respect for 
each other's opinions. 

He has always been quick to realize that an 
administrator must decentralize ; that the greater 
his task and the larger the number of his as- 
sistants, the more he must trust and support 
them. But this is impracticable unless the sub- 
ordinates return in full the trust of their chief. 

["7] 



LEONARD WOOD 

He never forgets that a good administrator 
must be the servant, not the master, of the peo- 
ple for whom he works. His attitude reminds 
one of the old saying that the Pope is "The 
servant of the servants of God." 

The time has long since passed when loyalty 
of men towards their leader, or of a people to 
their ruler, need not be reciprocal. Even as long 
ago as the French Revolution, Louis XVI was 
guillotined for what his subjects conceived to be 
disloyalty to France and to the French people. 
The American Colonies revoked their allegiance 
to King George HI of England because he had 
first cancelled his loyalty to them. 

Yet few superiors are truly loyal to their sub- 
ordinates. Only too often, even in military life, 
a leader gives his officers verbal orders; then if 
success results he assumes all the credit, while 
if failure supervenes he allows them to be blamed, 
saying either that they disobeyed or exceeded his 
order, or that they were too stupid to understand 
it. 

Leonard Wood goes to the other extreme, and 
in every case assumes all the responsibility for 
the acts of his subordinates, since it was he who 
selected them, trained them in their work, and 
maintained them in office. They know that Wood 
and Wood alone will justly deal out to them re- 
ward or punishment; if the man in error is 
competent and rarely makes mistakes, his failure 
will be overlooked; but if he fails often, he will 

[ii8] 



THE WOOD METHOD 

be shifted to other work more suited to his train- 
ing and temperament. 

In 1904, towards the end of his Governorship 
of the Moro Province, it became necessary to 
wage a decisive campaign in the Island of Jolo, 
against a band of renegades who had gradually- 
been collected from the outlaws of the section. 
They had made their headquarters in an old ex- 
tinct volcano, which was about half a mile in di- 
ameter and towered two thousand feet above the 
surrounding jungle. It was by tradition a sort of 
holy mountain, in whose sanctuary they believed 
themselves safe from capture. There was an 
ample supply of the all necessary drinking water 
in the crater. 

These renegades were slave-dealing, poly- 
gamous, Mohammedan savages who would 
neither allow their neighbors to live in peace, nor 
acknowledge any law or control for themselves. 
They were irreconcilable and kept their part of 
the Philippines in constant turmoil with their 
pillagings, their slave-hunts and their murders. 
Their fanatical hatred of everything Christian 
made them prefer death in battle, and the result- 
ing attainment of the Mohammedan seventh 
heaven, to submission to white men. 

They were the only group in the Moro Prov- 
ince which as a whole had been proof against 
Governor Wood's patience, diplomacy and arbi- 
tration. 

It is one of his most definite characteristics 

[i'9] 



LEONARD WOOD 

that he never shirks an unpleasant duty, and when 
these renegades had finally become the only un- 
pacified clan, when during- eight months all at- 
tempts at arbitration had failed, and when it was 
evident that they would never submit, he approved 
a campaign against them. 

The work was allotted to a reenforced regiment 
under Colonel Duncan, who eventually drove the 
tribe into the interior of their crater. 

The robbers having positively refused to sur- 
render, guns were taken up by hand or by block 
and tackle, and the hill was stormed with heavy 
losses, amounting to twenty-five per cent, of the 
American troops engaged. The battle ended on 
the restricted floor of the crater in a terrible 
hand-to-hand melee, bayonet against bolo. The 
outlaws, who neither asked nor gave quarter, 
were nearly all killed. In the excitement of the 
battle a number of women, whose habitual cos- 
tume included trousers and was otherwise similar 
to Moro masculine attire, met death fighting side 
by side with their men. 

A garbled account of their fate reached the 
United States, and resulted in a congressional in- 
vestigation which seemed to demand a scapegoat, 
and was likely to ruin someone's career. Gen- 
eral Wood was cabled for an immediate explana- 
tion. He sent a reply, the gist of which was: — 
*T will investigate. Colonel Duncan deserves all 
credit for winning the battle. I assume entire re- 
sponsibility for the action of the troops in every 

[120] 



THE WOOD METHOD 

particular. I do not believe that in this or in any 
other fight American soldiers killed a Moro 
woman unless unavoidably in close action." And 
he fought it out along those lines, protecting Dun- 
can. 

Wood's loyalty to his subordinates is bound- 
less. It is the keynote of his administrative suc- 
cesses. In his personal character it is his most 
striking trait, save only his devotion to Ameri- 
canism. He considers his men before himself, 
and never forgets any one of them who has 
served him faithfully, no matter in how humble a 
capacity. 

An interesting example of this occurred in 
1916, while he was stationed at Governor's Island 
as Commander of the Eastern Department. 

He arrived at his office about 8:30 one morn- 
ing to find a telegram from a woman in Indiana 
named Blizzard, stating that her husband was 
detained at the Immigration Department at Ellis 
Island, and asking the General to have him re- 
leased. The telegram gave no intimation of the 
cause of detention and no clew as to the man's 
identity. The General, however, immediately re- 
membered him as one of his old soldiers, and an 
aide-de-camp, who arrived shortly before nine 
o'clock, found the General occupied in personally 
telephoning to Ellis Island. 

It developed that the man had no money and 
no proof of identity, and was violently insane. 
He had just been returned from Mexico, and his 

[121] 



LEONARD WOOD 

insanity was due to ill treatment at the hands of 
Mexicans during the only period of our history 
when American citizens in foreign countries were 
denied protection by their own government. 

Our immigration laws forbid entrance into the 
country of either paupers or the insane, unless 
they are American citizens and can produce proof 
of that fact, which barred Blizzard until proof of 
his identity could be produced. 

General Wood, upon learning these details, im- 
mediately dispatched to Ellis Island both an army 
surgeon and his personal orderly, Sergeant 
Heintzman, who had formerly served with Bliz- 
zard; the surgeon to examine the man and 
make certain that he was receiving proper medi- 
cal attention; the Sergeant to identify him and 
permit his entrance into the country. 

The General also telegraphed the State authori- 
ties of Indiana to arrange for the man's transfer 
to an Indiana Insane Asylum. 

Meanwhile the General had Blizzard trans- 
ferred to a hospital near his own headquarters on 
Governor's Island, and visited him there every 
few days. On his first visit the general w^ore a 
blue uniform of the old type; this caused Blizzard 
to have a violent seizure because it was to him 
the symbol of the country which had abandoned 
him; in his subsequent visits the General there- 
fore wore khaki. 

Eventually Blizzard was sent to an asylum in 
Indiana, near his own home, where he received 

[122] 



THE WOOD METHOD 

every care; he was, however, beyond help, and 
died about a year later. 

The aide-de-camp asked General Wood why he 
had taken so much personal interest in the man, 
and received this answer: — "He served under me 
eighteen years ago in Havana as a stenographer 
and he never watched the clock." 

Wood's great powers of endurance and his 
ability to sustain long hours of intense activity, 
either mental or physical, have always been with 
his subordinates a most important point in his 
favor, for although it is part of his system to de- 
mand of them a tremendous amount of work, he 
himself outworks them all. At night the last 
light to be extinguished in headquarters is usually 
his own, and he is the first at work in the morn- 
ing. 

It is the rule of his own personal office that 
every letter be properly disposed of the same day 
it is received. Sometimes, in the morning, his big 
desk is piled high from end to end, with reports 
and correspondence, with more coming in every 
hour, but no matter how voluminous the accumu- 
lation he never lets up at night until every paper 
is disposed of. He goes through them like a 
snow-plow pushing through a drift. He has the 
grip of a bulldog on any task he once undertakes. 

"An administrator," he says, "should excel all 
his subordinates in his devotion to their common 
cause. His self-sacrifice in behalf of their ideals, 

[123] 



LEONARD WOOD 

his hours of labor, and his endurance should ever 
exceed theirs. He must give the example. He 
must set the pace. 

"He must realize that his own task is not so 
much material, as moral and psychological. By 
his example, he must embue each one of the de- 
partments under his direction with a spirit of 
mutual cooperation and support, not merely to- 
wards himself but also towards each other. This 
should include a desire to understand the work 
of others, a fraternal tolerance each of the other's 
mistakes or apparent mistakes, and a cheerful, 
constant watchfulness each of the other's in- 
terests. 

*'To be entirely successful this spirit must be 
founded upon some idealism, such as patriotism, 
religious conviction, altruism, devotion to public 
service, or family loyalty. In our American uni- 
versities it is called college spirit. It underlies 
the team-work to which universities owe their 
football championships. 

**Team-work is largely inspired and instilled 
by the team Captain, who must himself be an un- 
swerving believer in his team's ultimate success. 

"An administrator," continued General Wood, 
'"must be able to decentralize. In giving orders 
to a subordinate he must explain what is desired 
in terms of results, without going into sugges- 
tions and details as to methods by which to ac- 
complish those results. This not only saves time, 

[124] 



THE WOOD METHOD 

but is an acknowledgment of the fact that an 
intelligent subordinate, on the ground, devoting 
all his thought and energy to a task is a better 
judge as to the ways and means than his superior, 
occupied with many other things and tied to his 
headquarters." 

One of Wood's old aides said to me: "The 
first duty he gave me was to make a certain in- 
vestigation, and to recommend the subsequent ac- 
tion to be taken. After completing the investiga- 
tion, I made out a typewritten memorandum, 
stating my conclusions and my recommendations. 

"When I took this to the General he held it in 
his hand, and without even glancing at it, asked 
if I were satisfied with the solution I had worked 
out. I replied in the affirmative. Still without 
reading the memorandum, he handed it back and 
directed me to draw up the orders necessary to 
carry out that recommendation. 

"This threw upon me a responsibility I had 
not expected, and I spent a whole day going over 
miy work again, before I finally dared draw up the 
orders. 

"This experience showed me, more than any 
amount of talk, that what he wanted was a staff 
officer who would relieve him of details. 

One of the many reasons for the love and re- 
spect which Wood invariably receives from his 
subordinates is his ability to make definite deci- 
sions promptly, thus allowing business to proceed 
without delay. When an assistant refers to him 

[125] 



LEONARD WOOD 

a matter upon which hinges all further action the 
necessary decision is always received on the min- 
ute, and in brief, decisive words which leave no 
room for doubt or hesitation. 

As one who has worked under General Wood, 
I wish to say in conclusion that he is the most 
satisfactory superior in the world. The princi- 
pal reasons for this are that his subordinates are 
encouraged to take the initiative and to assume 
responsibility; that they are helped to grow and 
to develop; that they are judged by results and 
are not deserted if they get into trouble ; that his 
ability to render quick, accurate decisions enables 
them to keep busy and to carry each appointed 
task to a prompt and successful conclusion. 



[126] 



CHAPTER VIII 

APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

A VERY difficult problem of Colonial Adminis- 
tration faced the United States in 1899. We had 
freed Cuba from the Spaniard's misrule and 
were desirous to withdraw and leave the Cubans 
to manage their own internal affairs. We were, 
however, unable to do this immediately because 
the war had left the country in a state of com- 
plete anarchy which for the moment made self- 
government utterly out of the question. 

Yet to remain in occupation was to invite from 
all Cubans the suspicion that we intended to an- 
nex their island, a suspicion which increased in 
strength with every month that we remained in 
possession, and which might fairly be expected 
eventually to result in an insurrection against us 
similar to the one which did actually take place 
the same year in the Philippines under like con- 
ditions. 

The Cubans desired immediate independence 
with a persistent impatience which made them 
chafe under the slightest delay. For generations 
they had suffered and fought in the long struggle 
for personal liberty and national freedom until 

[127]! 



LEONARD WOOD 

the desire for it had become the ingrained obses- 
sion of their nature that they could not be patient 
under any arguments of mere expediency. They 
were unvvilHng or unable to appreciate any rea- 
sons for postponement. 

Their suspicions were constantly fanned into* 
frames by certain Americans who openly and per- 
sistently claimed that the Cubans were perma- 
nently unsuited for self-government. These 
Americans, through the press, advocated annexa- 
tion and spread the idea that this was not only 
for Cuba's ultimate best interest but was really 
desired by the better class of Cubans themselves. 
In consequence the great mass of the Cuban peo- 
ple began to look upon the American flag as a 
blight upon their land, and were rapidly becom- 
ing overwhelmingly anti-American. All their po- 
litical factions and all their newspapers were in- 
creasingly unfriendly. 

They feared exploitation by the American. 
They feared his industries and his capital. They 
feared him because he had so easily and so quick- 
ly whipped the Spaniards, against whom they 
had struggled in vain for so many decades. They 
disliked the individual American for his energy, 
for his physical superiority, for his ridicule of 
the duel, for his direct brusque manners which 
completely ignored the courtesies and amenities 
so dear to the heart of the Latin. 

They were out of sympathy with the form of 
civilization offered by the intruder, with its puri- 

[128] 



APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

tanism, and its conventionality, its disrespect for 
traditions, its lust for sanitation, its disapproval 
of bull-fights and cock-fighting. 

Gratitude is short-lived, and the newborn sus- 
picion of the American motives had already sup- 
planted the memories of the treasure and the 
lives which the United States had expended to 
free Cuba from Spain. The very magnitude of 
America's sacrifice made Cubans more suspicious 
for, made cynical by centuries of Spanish oppres- 
sion, they said: ''Is it not inconceivable that the 
Americans should have sacrificed so many lives 
and spent so much money for mere Brotherly 
Love?" 

Roosevelt, keenly interested in everything per- 
taining to Cuba, well outlined the problems we 
then faced. 

''1 am certain that if the Cubans show them- 
selves entirely fit to establish and carry on a free 
and orderly government the great mass of my 
fellow-citizens will gladly permit them to decide 
for themselves the destiny of Cuba and will allow 
them to be independent if they so desire. 

"But I am also certain that our people will not 
permit the islands again to sink into a condition 
of squalid and savage anarchy. . . . 

"In these tropical and far-off lands good gov- 
ernment has got to be secured mainly not from 
Washington, but from the man sent to admin- 
ister the provinces. 

"What is really essential is to have first-class 
[129] 



LEONARD WOOD 

men chosen to administer these provinces, and 
then to give these men the widest possible lati- 
tude as to means and methods for solving the 
exceedingly difficult problems set before them. 

**Most fortunately we have in General Wood 
the exact type of man we need; and we have in 
his work * * * j^ Santiago an exact illustration 
of how the work should be done." 

Secretary of War Root wrote as follows of the 
Cuban situation as it was in 1899: 

"There were not a dozen Cubans who believed 
that the United States was going to keep faith 
with them. We were daily on the verge of the 
same sort of thing that happened to us in the 
Philippines ; namely, of having these people, who 
for years had fought for their independence and 
who believed that we were going to hold them in 
subjection in the same way that Spain held them, 
take to the woods and begin another insurrection, 
this time against us. 

"And I can tell you that I had an uneasy time 
with the apprehension that any morning the 
newspapers might contain the news of American 
troops firing on Cubans. 

"There was a most urgent necessity of getting 
the best man we could to do that most difficult 
and serious work. And I went to President Mc- 
Kinley and told him that I was satisfied that 
General Wood was the man. And he said, 'All 
right ; go ahead.' " 

[130] 



APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

Therefore Leonard Wood was appointed Gov- 
ernor of Cuba. 

His predecessor, Captain-General Weyler, the 
Spanish Governor-General, had received a salary 
of $60,000 and in addition to this had been pro- 
vided with an entertainment fund of $25,000 a 
year. He commanded fifty generals and nearly a 
quarter of a million soldiers, yet had failed either 
to subdue or govern the Island. The more his 
Spanish soldiers slew Cuban rebels, who in their 
eyes were incorrigible criminals, and the oftener 
they dragged them before Spanish judges for sen- 
tence, the more odious and hated became the 
name of Spain throughout all Cuba. 

Wood went to Havana and established his office 
in the old Spanish palace from which Cuba had 
been oppressed and misruled for so many genera- 
tions. He sat in the chair of Weyler the 
Damned, dispensing democratic justice where its 
former occupant had exercised the most pitiless 
tyranny. 

From his windows he could look upon the old 
tower from whose casemated windows De Sota's 
wife watched so many long years for the return 
of the discoverer of the Mississippi, and could 
also see the Cathedral which for several centuries 
had contained the body of Columbus. 

Amid traditions inherited from Spain and dat- 
ing from the Middle Ages, he set up, in place of 
the medieval system of oppression which had been 
crushed, the democracy "of the people, for the 

[131] 



LEONARD WOOD 

people, by the people" after the truest ideals of 
Americanism. 

His administration in Cuba has been likened to 
a curious mixture of old town-meeting republi- 
canism and absolute autocracy ; he never used his 
authority for the sake of exercising it as the 
Spanish governors had so often done, but when 
it was the last resort he set his jaw and used it 
to the limit. 

When he assumed office, the Island was in- 
fested with bandits and renegades of the worst 
type whose pillaging and lawlessness cried out 
for immediate suppression. Regiments of Amer- 
ican troops under his command were ready and 
anxious for action. 

Nevertheless one of his first official acts was 
to pass regulations excluding his soldiers from 
the duty of running down or arresting Cuban 
criminals. To have had Americans capture or 
kill even this outcast class of Cubans might have 
resulted in making martyrs of them, and causing 
hatred and increased suspicion of the Americans. 

He appointed Cuban judges to sit in judgment 
on Cuban criminals and establish their guilt by 
Cuban standards. To use his own words, Gov- 
ernor Wood insisted upon letting the Cubans "do 
their own rat-killing." 

He organized a Constabulary or Rural Guard 
of less than two thousand natives, and this hand- 
ful of men under his direction were able to re- 
store order and maintain it, a task in which Wey- 

[132] 



APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

ler with 200,000 Spaniards had hopelessly failed. 

As finally organized it consisted of 15 troops, 
totaling 1,604 officers and men, stationed at 247 
different posts, and so distributed as completely 
to control the Island. It was commanded by 
Brig. General Alejandro Rodriguez, a famous 
soldier of the wars for Cuban Liberation. He 
had direct supervision over its work in each of 
the six Cuban provinces. Each -provincial chief 
of the Rural Guard ranked as a lieutenant-colonel ; 
his command consisted of two or more troops and 
each troop was commanded by a captain and two 
lieutenants. A captain was held responsible for 
public order in the section of the province to which 
his command was assigned. 

Promotions were made only from among its 
own members, and in order to win a commission 
a man must start as a private. This system pro- 
duced excellent morale, and as a result the Guard 
never became a political organization but was 
a thoroughly efficient force, comparing favorably 
with any similar organization in older republics. 

A fair and just policy of discipline was pur- 
sued. Any abuse of authority was severely pun- 
ished, while a proper performance of duty was 
always sustained, no matter what the results 
might be or how powerful the individual arrested 
by the Guard. 

Thus public order was almost immediately re- 
stored and property and life became safer in Cuba 
than in the United States. Indeed, during the 

1^33] 



LEONARD WOOD 

whole period of Leonard Wood's Governorship 
there was only one instance of train robbery or 
robbery of the mails, when a courier who was 
carrying mail and dispatches between Holguin 
and Santiago in the fall of 1898 was killed and 
robbed by bandits, who were later arrested by 
the Rural Guard, tried and convicted by Cuban 
judges, and sentenced to life imprisonment in a 
penitentiary entirely run by Cubans. 

Having taken these necessary steps to stabil- 
ize the country. Governor Wood was able to de- 
vote undivided attention to other matters. He 
made it his policy to surround himself with 
Cubans, as he had done at Santiago, and, giving 
them his full confidence, he began with their help 
and advice the study of his administrative prob- 
lems. 

These problems were exceedingly complex. 

It was necessary to build up a republic in a 
country which hitherto had been a military colony, 
and which was prostrated by four years of in- 
cessant and destructive warfare; where general 
elections as we understand the term were un- 
known; where the vast majority of the prospec- 
tive voters were illiterate, and where heretofore 
no native had been allowed to hold office. 

It was not only necessary to draft new electoral 
laws, but to teach the people how to read and 
write so that they could learn the laws and be 

1 134] 



APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

trained to use them wisely ; could read their bal- 
lots and cast their votes. 

It was necessary practically to rewrite the ad- 
ministrative law of the land, including the laws 
relative to railways, sanitation, taxation, chari- 
ties, hospitals, public works, and schools; and to 
establish a sound system of accounting and audit- 
ing for public moneys, that the new republic 
might eventually start on its career well-equipped, 
free from debt, with a balance in the treasury. 

On the one hand serious friction with the Cu- 
bans had to be avoided at a time when, to quote 
again Mr. Root's words, "there were not a dozen 
Cubans who believed that the United States was 
going to keep faith with them." On the other 
hand, unscrupulous Americans with great politi- 
cal or financial influence had to be prevented from 
exploiting or cheating the natives. 

The Island had for many years been subdivided 
into six provinces, — Santiago, Puerto Principe, 
Santa Clara, Matanzas, Pinar del Rio, and Ha- 
bana. Pending the first general election, Gen- 
eral Wood appointed civil Governors over these 
provinces. Although he was entirely at liberty 
to select Americans to fill these positions, all six 
of the men chosen were nevertheless Cubans, and 
five of them had served as Generals in the Cuban 
Army of Liberation. In fact 98 per cent, of all 
the officials appointed by Wood in Cuba were 
Cubans. 

[135] 



LEONARD WOOD 

The provinces had long been subdivided into 
townships, of which there were 128 in all Cuba 
when Wood became Governor. 

In the two eastern provinces, Santiago and 
Puerto Principe, which included 57 per cent, of 
the total area of the Island, there were only twen- 
ty-two municipalities. The municipalities of these 
two provinces were thoroughly efficient in pro- 
tecting public interests and were much more eco- 
nomically administered than those of the prov- 
inces of the west. ' 

In the four western provinces a very different 
state of affairs existed, for although they in- 
cluded within their limits only forty-three per 
cent, of the total area of the Island, they were 
nevertheless divided into 106 municipalities, a 
great many of which had been created by the 
Spaniards for political reasons subsequent to the 
war of 1869-1878. Their excessive numb^^r added 
greatly to the expense of the National Govern- 
ment and was justified by no corresponding ben- 
efit to the general management and conduct of 
public affairs. 

The suppression of these municipalities had 
been demanded for a long time, as they were lack- 
ing in the population and resources necessary 
to furnish the needed revenues for the proper 
and efficient maintenance of their government. 
Governor Wood deemed it absolutely essential 
that this reduction should be accomplished under 
the military government, as later it would be dif- 

[136] 



APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

ficult for the administration which would succeed 
him to carry out radical measures of this char- 
acter. 

Governor Wood gradually abolished many of 
those small municipalities, whose existence was 
not justified by any necessity and entailed a great 
unwarranted burden of taxation, until forty-six 
had finally been consolidated with other larger 
townships. The alcaldes and officials who were 
about to lose their jobs vehemently protested 
against the innovation. It meant for them the 
loss of the little mantle of authority with which 
they had been clothed, and the discontinuance of 
the small salaries which they had received. 

Nevertheless the consolidations were gradually 
carried out and, when completed, resulted in 
municipalities having, as a rule, not less than 
12,000 inhabitants, and territory with a sufficient 
number of properties in production to yield the 
necessary income for the maintenance and sup- 
port of such public obligations as they are called 
upon to fulfill. 

Governor Wood had superseded General 
Brooke who had not understood the Cubans and 
who had not been liked by them. The govern- 
ment which he inherited from Brooke was largely 
made up of Americans. It was organized into 
four departments presided over by four Ameri- 
can civil secretaries, who formed the Governor's 
cabinet. These departments were ( i ) State and 



LEONARD WOOD 

Government; (2) Justice and Public Instruction; 
(3) Agriculture, Commerce, Industries and Pub- 
lic Works, and (4) Finance. 

The four incumbent American civil secretaries 
offered Wood their resignations, which were ac- 
cepted. After careful consultations with Cubans 
he made arrangements to increase the number of 
the national government departments from four 
to six. Justice and Public Instruction were sepa- 
rated ; and Public Works was divided from Agri- 
culture, Commerce and Industries. These radi- 
cal steps were taken only after a careful investi- 
gation had shown that the two original depart- 
ments were too large and unwieldly, and that 
each had been handling two classes of administra- 
tive work in no way related to each other. 

While the mechanical part of this reorganiza- 
tion was taking place Governor Wood scoured 
Cuba to discover the Cubans best fitted to fill 
the six cabinet positions. He already knew much 
about the qualifications of the various public men 
of Cuba, acquired from his work and contact with 
them in Santiago; this knowledge he supple- 
mented by consultations with many leading Cu- 
bans. His old friend General Gomez was of 
great assistance to him in his efforts to find the 
best cabinet material. 

It is interesting to note that some of the men 
he finally selected were not only distinctly anti- 
American but were personally hostile to the Gov- 
ernor himself, but as soon as he was convinced 

[138] 



APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

that they were the best men in Cuba for the po- 
sitions, he not only invited them to serve, but 
persuaded them to accept. 

It has always been characteristic of him that 
he not only invariably selects the most competent 
and expert men to serve as his subordinates, but 
is always able completely to ignore any previous 
personal opposition towards himself, and to per- 
suade e\ en his opponents to work under him har- 
moniously ; he then supports them so loyally that 
they soon fit into his organization and work en- 
thusiastically and effectively. This is largely due 
to the fact that he never resents an honest dif- 
ference of opinion on the part of an associate or 
subordinate, and never assumes the mental at- 
titude that any one who disagrees with him must 
have a puny intellect. 

He realized that, even in so small a nation as 
Cuba, the chief executive could not possibly be all- 
wise and omnipotent and that, provided he used 
proper care in selecting his cabinet officers, the 
latter would inevitably know more than he about 
their particular specialties. 

Senor Diego Tamayo became Secretary of 
State. He was a gentleman of acknowledged 
ability, formerly a member of the Central Com- 
mittee of the Autonomist Party, and later a lead- 
ing spirit in the conservative element of the Revo- 
lutionary Party. He had also been President of 
the Academy of Sciences. He had never been an 
active participant on the field of battle, but had 

[139] 



LEONARD WOOD 

repeatedly represented his country at home and 
abroad in positions of great diplomatic impor- 
tance. 

Sefior Lius Estevez y Romero, a noted Cuban 
jurist, was made Secretary of Justice. Sefior 
Juan Bantiste Hernandez Barreiro, Professor of 
Roman Law at the University of Havana, be- 
came Secretary of Public Instruction; General 
Rius Rivera, Secretary of Agriculture, Commerce 
and Industries; Seiior Jose Ramon Villalon, a 
civil engineer of great ability and a graduate of 
Lehigh University, Secretary of Public Works; 
and Senor Enrique Jose Varona, a Cuban banker. 
Secretary of Finance. 

In addition to large staffs of native Cubans, 
the cabinet officers were provided with a few 
American assistants, who worked under their 
orders and in that way instilled American meth- 
ods of efficiency into Cuban affairs. 

Each of the six provincial governments was 
provided with a cabinet which in a general way 
followed the lines of Governor Wood's national 
cabinet, the members of which supervised and co- 
ordinated the work of their subordinates in the 
various townships of their province. 

In addition to the six national departments, 
headed by cabinet officers, there were at first cer- 
tain independent bureaus which were not placed 
under the direct jurisdiction of any one of the 
six departments, but remained under the direct 
supervision of the Governor. These included the 

[140] 



APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

Customs Service, from which Cuba obtained near- 
ly her entire income; the Treasury, which paid out 
all public funds; and the Auditor, who had 
charge of examining the accounts and vouchers 
submitted by public servants. For the time being 
these three departments were presided over by 
carefully selected American officers. 

Governor Wood, having thus fashioned the va- 
rious tools with which he was to work, set out 
upon his long and arduous task of reconstruc- 
tion and administration. 



[141] 



CHAPTER IX 

GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

Although the results obtained during Leon- 
ard Wood's governorship of Cuba were spectacu- 
lar in the extreme, — were in fact absolutely un- 
precedented, his methods were so moderate and 
diplomatic that there are no crises to study and 
no exciting moments to depict. 

His administration was a strictly business one, 
and he made no pretense of obtaining results 
by startling get-there-quick methods, but pro- 
ceeded by patient, plodding, drudgery along 
the lines of carefully thought-out plans founded 
upon sound economic principles. The great bulk 
of the work was accomplished, under his super- 
vision, by his six carefully selected and thorough- 
ly competent Cuban cabinet officers and their re- 
spective departments of State, of Agriculture, of 
Justice, of Education, of Public Works and of 
Finance. 

Their work was so colossal in scope and so gi- 
gantic in volume that it is impossible here to more 
than touch upon a few points illustrative of the 
whole. This may perhaps best be done by con- 

[142] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

sidering the six departments in turn, commencing 
with the State Department. 

This Department was in direct touch with the 
six Cuban provincial governors, who were re- 
sponsible to it, and through it to Governor Wood. 
The alcaldes (presidents of the townships) were 
in turn responsible to the provincial governors. 

The difficulties in the reorganization of the 
townships, through which measures of govern- 
ment were directly applied to the people, were ex- 
ceedingly great, for the work had to be performed 
by men who in most instances were without pre- 
vious experience in business or in government. 

During the first eight months of his governor- 
ship all township officers were Cubans appointed 
by Wood, either directly or upon the recommenda- 
tion of his military and civil subordinates. Al- 
though every effort was made to select suitable 
men the only ones willing to accept office were, in 
many cases, men from the revolutionary army 
who had been efficient in the field, but were not 
qualified for the discharge of civil duties nor for 
the upbuilding and reorganizing of the shattered 
municipalities over which they were selected to 
preside. 

Moreover, they were much hampered in the 
performance of their official duties by the con- 
tinued prevalence of old customs and ideas which 
had in the past been responsible for an almost 
entire destruction of public spirit. There was a 
tendency to an abnormally large personnel, and 

[143] 



LEONARD WOOD 

an outlay for official salaries entirely dispropor- 
tionate to other expenditures and much greater 
than was necessary to perform the proper work 
of the municipality, which came primarily from 
the old system of too many officials and too few 
hours of work. 

So discouraging and far-reaching had been the 
effects of the war, that the municipalities were 
practically without revenues from municipal tax- 
ation, and were deeply in debt. In order that 
the entire energies of the country might be de- 
voted to reconstructing the agricultural interests 
upon which the island's prosperity depended, it 
was Governor Wood's policy to assist them in 
every way possible until the harvesting of the first 
crop, and until affairs should be placed upon a 
somewhat stable and normal basis. 

This necessitated allotments from the general 
revenues of the Island, since the amount of 
money received from the collection of local taxes 
was so insignificant that the salaries of munici- 
pal officials were about all that could be paid from 
that source. The Central Government paid in 
full from its own revenues the other expenses of 
the different municipalities, such as the cost of 
administration, courts, police, sanitation, sewage, 
jails, hospitals and asylums. 

Yet, after paying all these expenses, the Cen- 
tral Government was still called upon at the 
close of the calendar year 1899 to make good 
further municipal deficits amounting to nearly 

[144] 




LEONARD WOOD AS GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

144] 




OOVEHNOR WOOD S HEADQUARTERS IX HABANA 




THE AMERICAN ARMY ENTERING HABANA 




THE CUBAN RURAL GUARD 

Organized by Governor Wood to preserve order among their countrymen. 




HABANA HARBOR 




MORRO CASTLE 



[145 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

$300,000. Such large deficits, incurred after the 
state itself had paid all the principal cost of main- 
tenance, made it apparent that the municipalities 
were not attempting to collect their proper rev- 
enues; a systematic series of investigations con- 
firmed this fact. In consequence Wood published 
a general order to the effect that the state would 
not pay any municipal deficits incurred subsequent 
to December 31, 1899, but would continue to pay 
the expenses of the police, public instruction, jus- 
tice, jails, asylums, charities, hospitals, and sanita- 
tion, until further notice. 

What was needed more than anything else for 
the proper management of municipal affairs was 
the creation of a public spirit aiming at economical 
and efficient conduct of all municipal business. 
This spirit was so totally lacking that the people 
were too indifferent even to protest against 
abuses or to submit charges against alcaldes and 
city councils. 

No more striking illustration of this lack of 
public spirit manifested itself than the condition 
of the prisons. The prison system of the Island 
consisted of the presidio or penitentiary of Ha- 
bana, the provincial prisons at the capital of each 
of the six provinces, and the district prisons in 
the judicial districts. 

The six provincial prisons situated respectively 
in Habana, Pinar del Rio, Matanzas, Santa 
Clara, Puerto Principe, and Santiago were all 
comparatively large prisons, but were conducted 

[145] 



LEONARD WOOD 

with little system, the sole object being to retain 
the prisoners within the walls. The administra- 
tion of prisons had been one of the most medieval 
features of the Spanish Government in old Cuba, 
and when Governor Wood assumed control of the 
Island he found conditions worse than ever as 
they were without proper arrangements for sani- 
tation, cooking, lighting, or ventilating. Bathing 
facilities and sanitary arrangements were of the 
crudest possible description or were entirely lack- 
ing. There was no system looking toward the 
reformation of the inmates. Hardened criminals 
with previous convictions and young boys await- 
ing trial were herded together. The sole purpose 
was always to punish, never to correct. 

Records were imperfectly kept; in many cases 
prisoners awaiting trial had no idea of the 
charges under which they were held, nor of the 
date of their trial, nor had they any means of 
procuring witnesses. They were often detained 
for months awaiting trial and then discharged for 
lack of evidence, their small plantations in the 
meantime having been ruined and their families 
scattered. Very few of the persons arrested and 
charged with crime were able to furnish bail, and 
many of them from remote points in the interior 
were unable to communicate with their witnesses. 
The judicial authorities were inactive in procur- 
ing witnesses and bringing cases to trial. The 
result of all these conditions was that the jails 
were overcrowded. 

[146] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

Orders were promptly published by Governor 
Wood requiring that prisoners detained and 
awaiting trial should be kept apart from those 
already sentenced and that boys, whether sen- 
tenced or awaiting trial, should be separated from 
adult prisoners. 

All the prisons were thoroughly cleaned up and 
nearly all received general repairs, which in 
some places amounted almost to reconstruction. 
Wherever possible, bathing facilities were fur- 
nished and the condition of ventilation improved. 
Suitable bedding was supplied. Immediate steps 
were taken to install modern cooking apparatus 
and proper sanitary arrangements. Steam kitch- 
ens and steam laundries were established in all 
prisons. 

Another problem which perplexed the Depart- 
ment of State, and illustrates the difficulty and 
scope of its work, was the question of the orphans 
of dead soldiers, and the children of destitute 
parents who had lost everything in the war. 
[They were found in such numbers that measures 
to care for them systematically were imperative. 
Governor Wood was opposed to the principle of 
institutionalizing the children, and every effort 
was made to place each orphan in a home, where 
it was visited from time to time by a traveling 
agent of the government. This method proved 
far superior to that of segregation in orphan 
asylums. 

[147] 



LEONARD WOOD 

The hospitals of Cuba were found to be hospi- 
tals in name only. They were without equipment, 
without sanitary arrangements, or any system of 
nursing. Proper methods of hospital adminis- 
tration were accordingly introduced and in the 
larger hospitals training schools for nurses were 
started, Cuban girls of ability and good character 
being placed under the instruction of nurses from 
the United States. 

Homes for the aged and infirm, and refuges 
for lepers were also organized. 

The insane asylums were found to be in very 
"bad condition. In the one at Mazorra near Ha- 
bana the suffering and mortality during the last 
years of the war were frightful; in two years 
there had been 900 deaths among the 1,200 in- 
habitants. 

Governor Wood's predecessor had already 
commenced the work of reconstruction in this es- 
tablishment, a work which was continued. Plans 
were drawn up for new buildings which would 
render the control and treatment of the insane 
much more easy and beneficial. 

When Leonard Wood was appointed Military 
Governor of Santiago in 1898, he found most of 
the insane people in civil hospitals where they 
were sometimes confined in little wooden boxes 
or pens which in some instances were placed on 
wheels, the general effect being that of a large 

[148] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

dog kennel. In size they were about ten feet 
long, five feet wide and seven feet high, with a 
door in front and in the door was a small grat- 
ing through which food and water and other sup- 
plies were passed. On one side, secured to the 
wall, was a board about fourteen inches wide 
which served as a bed. 

In many towns the insane were found in the 
prisons where no effort was made to effect their 
cure. The conditions which existed tended to in- 
crease rather than modify the malady of the in- 
mates. 

Early in the year 1900 Governor Wood issued 
orders that all the insane through the Island 
should be sent to the general asylum at Mazorra, 
where special efforts were made to protect them 
and also to prevent undue advantage being taken 
of persons under charge of insanity. 

The Department of Agriculture, Commerce and 
Industry of Cuba was practically non-existent be- 
fore Leonard Wood's governorship, and its pol- 
icy and personnel had to be built up from nothing. 
It soon became one of the most important de- 
partments of the Island. 

Cuba is essentially an agricultural country and 
derives its wealth principally from the soil. Frost 
is unknown and the opportunities for the agricul- 
turists and planters are unexcelled. Her lands 
are fertile to a wonderful degree, but had been 
only slightly developed. 

[149] 



LEONARD WOOD 

The largest crop was sugar and even prior to 
the liberation there had been annual harvests of 
over a million tons, and this large yield was made 
while only a small portion of the available sugar 
lands were under cultivation. 

In the mountains of the east some of the best 
cofifee in the world was grown, and in former 
times this industry was extensive; but it had been 
largely destroyed during the ten years' war. 

Fine cocoa was produced in large amounts. 
Lemons and oranges of excellent quality also 
grow with little cultivation. 

The tobacco raised on the Island was the finest 
in the world. 

In addition to the most important work of 
aiding and coordinating the cause of agriculture, 
the Department of Agriculture, Commerce and 
Industry had also to take under its supervision 
patents and trade-marks, mines, forests, and fish- 
eries, and was charged with making complete 
surveys of Government lands and forests and 
also with patrolling the coast and enforcing the 
fishery laws. 

The department's first Secretary, General Rius 
Rivera, took up its organization with energy and 
devoted himself to establishing it upon a sound 
basis. Sefior Rivera resigned on May i, 19CX), 
and was succeeded by Sefior Perfecto Lacoste, 
president of the Planters' Association and a man 
who had always been deeply interested in the de- 
velopment of agriculture. He was a graduate of 

[150] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

the University of Pennsylvania, and was particu- 
larly well qualified for the task assigned to him. 

A tremendous amount of research and admin- 
istrative work was carried on in relation to sugar 
and fruit plantations, forestry, sponge and tor- 
toise fisheries, mines, fisheries, and cattle ranch- 
ing; and also with problems relating to labor and 
railways. 

Under Leonard Wood's administration labor 
was constantly encouraged and protected. Strikes 
were few in number and were settled by arbitra- 
tion. After being signed by the interested par- 
ties, the final agreements were embodied in a gov- 
ernment order. It is worthy of note that the Gov- 
ernor saw to it that the agreements were lived up 
to absolutely by both parties; he positively re- 
fused to tolerate bad faith on the part either of 
employers or of labor leaders. 

He dealt with the Cuban railways on a basis of 
private ownership under government control, and 
was the first who had ever put such a system into 
operation. As applied by him it worked with per- 
fect satisfaction to the railway owners, the em- 
ployees, and the public. 

The railway laws upon which this system was 
based are masterpieces. They were drawn up by 
Wood after careful consultation with the greatest 
living authorities on railway administration, such 
as William van Horn, president of the Canadian 
Pacific, and Grenville Dodge, the builder of tlie 
TJnion Pacific, who came to Cuba to advise with 

[151] 



LEONARD WOOD 

the governor. With slight modifications these 
laws are still in successful operation. It is 
greatly to be regretted that they are too volumi- 
nous to be included in this book, — they comprise 
130 pages of fine type and are so concise that 
they can not well be abridged; therefore limited 
■space forbids their insertion. 

• •••••• 

The work of the Department of Public Works 
included every variety of engineering. Sefior 
Villalon, its Secretary, directed the improvement 
of many of Cuba's harbors, in almost every one 
of which there was some bank or reef which 
needed to be removed, the actual work being car- 
ried on by General Harry L. Hodges and Colonel 
Borden of the U. S. Engineers. In Cardenas, 
Cienfuegos, Matanzas, and Caibarien extensive 
dredging and pier construction were required in 
•order that freight and merchandise need not be 
lightered to and from ships of deep draft, thus 
laying a heavy additional burden upon the ex- 
porter and importer. At Caibarien the distance 
of lighterage w^as about eighteen miles. 

The bar at Cardenas was reduced at a cost of 
$400,000. At Matanzas a government wharf 
costing $300,000 was built in accordance with the 
plans of an American army engineer. The 
sunken battleship Maine was removed from the 
roadstead of Habana. New government wharves 
were built at Santiago, Guantanamo and Gibara. 

In Guantanamo an aqueduct, nine and one-half 

[152] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

miles long, was constructed, capable of supplying 
45,000 people. The water was taken from a point 
well above all possible sources of contamination 
and was of excellent quality. The construction 
of this aqueduct very greatly improved the sani- 
tary conditions existing in Guantanamo, nearly 
abolished typhoid, and tended to build up the 
town and increase the population. 

There were in Cuba no public roads, with the 
exception of the public highways in the Province 
of Habana, a few in Matanzas and Pinar del Rio, 
and some ver}^ indifferent ones in Santa Clara. 
The Island of Cuba was without a public road 
system and lacked means of thorough inland com- 
munication other than the roughest country 
roads, difficult to pass in the dry season, except 
for pack animals, and absolutely impassable in 
the rainy season. 

The Province of Santiago already had a start 
in the right direction, for much systematic work 
had been done by Wood round about Santiago 
when he was governor of that city. He had con- 
structed many miles of first-class roads and had 
opened up country highways and made them pass- 
able at least for freight carts and wagons in dry 
weather. 

• ••••• • 

Doctor Miguel Gener continued in office as Sec- 
retary of Justice until the first of May, 1901, 
when he tendered his resignation, having been 
elected Mayor of Habana. He was succeeded by 

[153] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Senor Jose Varela Jado, Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the Island, who was appointed by Gov- 
ernor Wood upon the unanimous recommenda- 
tion of the Supreme Court. 

The Governor fully appreciated the importance 
and value of the work of this department and 
gave it an unusual amount of personal super- 
vision. 

Before he went to Cuba he held long con- 
ferences with U. S. Chief Justice White, who 
was a profound student of Spanish law, who de- 
clared that while the substantive body of Span- 
ish law was sound, the procedure by which it 
was administered needed reform. The reforms 
needed were to facilitate the trial of persons ar- 
rested, to see that they were duly informed of the 
charges against them, and that they were sup- 
plied with competent counsel. Leonard Wood 
never lost sight of this opinion, and made it the 
basis of the judiciary system which he established 
for Cuba. 

It can safely be asserted that no Department 
was more in need of thorough and radical reform, 
rigid inspection, and constant supervision than 
this Department of Justice, which was lacking in 
efficiency, energy, and attention to duty. In its 
subordinate branches it was justly charged with 
T)artiality and lack of honesty and the courts were 
commonly said to be corrupt. 

The long and unnecessary detention of pris- 
oners awaiting trial seemed to be a matter of lit- 

[154] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

tie concern to the judges, who occupied them- 
selves in a leisurely manner for a few hours each 
day in a feeble attempt to dispose of an infinitesi- 
mal proportion of the enormous volume of busi- 
ness awaiting their attention. The people natu- 
rally had little confidence in such tardy justice. 

The judiciary and legal body had surrounded 
itself with an intricate network of tradition and 
conservatism and had adopted a procedure so 
cumbersome and slow as to render impossible any 
prompt administration of justice. There seemed 
to be an unlimited number of ways of getting a 
man into prison and tangling up his affairs, but 
unless he were rich and influential it was difficult 
for him to find his way out again. 

Under the old Spanish criminal law the ac- 
cused had been held incommunicado, — isolated 
from his friends. He did not have the right to 
face his accuser, was forced to testify against 
himself, and was denied the right of habeas 
corpus. 

The conditions growing out of the old methods 
of procedure were shocking and indicated an ab- 
solute disregard for personal liberty or any rea- 
sonable consideration of the rights of those ac- 
cused. Whether a case against a prisoner Wias 
disposed of in a day or a year had long been 
deemed a matter of trivial importance and one 
counted in no way worthy of serious considera- 
tion or special efifort. The administration of jus- 
tice slept, and the rights of the people to be tried 

[155] 



LEONARD WOOD 

promptly did not enter into the consideration of 
those in power. 

Governor Wood found it necessary to establish 
a special Board of Pardons charged with the in- 
vestigation of the status of all prisoners through- 
out the Island. Five hundred and twenty indi- 
viduals were released on the unanimous rec- 
ommendations of this Board, many of them 
on the ground that they had been confined await- 
ing trial for a longer period than they would have 
served had they been found guilty. 

At first it was difficult to get any person 
in Cuba to sign his or her name to a com- 
plaint against an official or any person of im- 
portance. To such an extent did this condition 
prevail that even brigands and outlaws arrested 
almost red-handed could not be convicted, for lack 
of witnesses, although the people were fully 
cognizant of the facts and confidentially re- 
ported them to the judges. It was necessary to 
find some point of departure, and therefore upon 
the receipt of a sufficient amount of reliable, 
trustworthy evidence, even if confidentially given, 
sentences were frequently imposed. Once offend- 
ers had commenced to be thus summarily dealt 
with, general confidence in the judicial decisions 
began to be established. After two years a point 
was reached where the people were willing to 
make formal and duly signed complaints against 
those who broke the law, even when they were in 
positions of authority and influence, or were dan-. 

[156] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

gerous members of the criminal classes. Every 
legitimate and proper method was employed to 
foster this confidence, for mitil this was devel- 
oped and fully established, it was impossible to 
maintain an efficient and democratic administra- 
tion of justice. 

Leonard Wood made the people thoroughly 
understand their individual rights. He impressed 
upon the official classes that their offices were 
offices of public trust and not of personal gain. 
Thus he laid the foundation of a secure and 
stable government in the Island. 

Correctional courts were established in all of 
the larger cities of Cuba. The procedure was 
oral and summary, and the judge had jurisdiction 
to impose a fine of $30.00 or thirty days' im- 
prisonment or both. If in his opinion the offense 
was one which demanded a more severe punish- 
ment, the law provided for the impaneling of a 
jury of five members in a manner very similar to 
that employed in the courts of the United States. 
If this jury found the accused guilty, a sentence 
of one hundred and eighty days' imprisonment 
and a fine not to exceed $500.00 could be im- 
posed. 

The value of the correctional courts was soon 
clearly demonstrated and their good results gen- 
erally appreciated. Much of the work formerly 
thrown upon the audiencias was now disposed 
of by these courts, to the great relief of the au- 

[157] 



LEONARD WOOD 

diencias and to the benefit of persons held for 
trial. 

Before Wood left Cuba, the courts, almost 
without exception, were discharging the duties 
imposed upon them with promptness and energy 
and had won the confidence of the public. Com- 
plaints against them had practically ceased; jus- 
tice was administered more promptly, both in civil 
and criminal cases, than in the courts of the 
United States. The average time for serious civil 
and criminal cases, from the date of arrest to final 
action in the case, was three months. Rich and 
poor received equal treatment and consideration. 
The judges were efficient, discharging their du- 
ties in a fearless manner. 

In addition to the reconstruction of the entire 
judicial fabric of the Cuban courts, many knotty 
problems of law had to be faced by the Depart- 
ment of Justice; for instance, there had been 
strong antagonism between Spaniards and 
Cubans, and all sorts of private revenge had 
been plotted by both parties through the in- 
strumentality of the corrupt conditions and the 
cases had become warped before Governor Wood 
had had time to straighten out the courts. He 
deemed it advisable to start anew with a clean 
slate and therefore quashed charges against per- 
sons alleged to have committed crimes while on 
active service prior to the declaration of peace. 

Prior to Wood's arrival an excellent supreme 
court, to replace that of Spain, had been formed 

[158] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

by the appointment of able Cuban lawyers se- 
lected from various parts of the Island. 

A less fortunate step had been the issu- 
ance as early as 1899 of an order making civil 
marriages the only legal ones. This had been 
done with the double purpose of curtailing the 
power of the Roman Catholic Church and of regu- 
lating vital records. The issue at stake, however, 
was an exceedingly complicated one; for while 
the new law recognized that marriage, as far as 
its validity in law was concerned, was a civil 
contract, to which the consent of the parties ca- 
pable of making a legal contract was essential, 
it failed sufficiently to take into consideration its 
religious significance. The original order was 
therefore modified by Governor Wood so that 
rharriages might be either civil or religious at the 
option of the contracting parties, providing, how- 
ever, that in a religious marriage solemnized by 
a clergyman or priest, the officiating minister was 
required to make out the proper civil certificates. 

Every effort was made to legalize the mar- 
riages which during the war had been contracted 
without due form. In certain sections of the 
country the situation existing was one of almost 
universal common-law marriage, and it was de- 
sired to make these of record and throw about 
them the protection and sanction of the law. Jo 
this end the legal period for the inscription of 
marriages was repeatedly extended in order that 

[1S91 



LEOiNARD WOOD 

the people in remote country districts might avail 
themselves of the opportunity. 

Under the old regime the ecclesiastical courts 
had had exclusive control of divorce and of the 
nullification of marriages. These matters were 
transferred to the civil courts. 

All the cemeteries had been controlled by the 
church, and burial was entirely dependent upon 
its regulations and imposts. The sanitary and 
police arrangements of burial were now trans- 
ferred to the civil authorities and in addition each 
municipality established a civil cemetery. 

Knotty questions involving property belonging 
to the religious orders of the Roman Catholic 
Church were brought to Governor Wood for set- 
tlement. In the period between 1837-41, Spain 
had secularized a great portion of the property 
belonging to the various religious orders. At the 
time of the secularization Spain directed her 
Governors-General on seizing this property to 
seize also all titles thereto. This act of the 
Spanish government led to a protracted con- 
troversy between Spain and the Holy See, the 
final outcome of which was embodied in the Con- 
cordat, published in 1861, in which it was agreed 
that the properties which had been sold should 
be dropped from consideration; that where pos- 
sible other properties should be returned to the 
Church ; that those which had been put to secular 
uses and were needed by the government should 
be retained, but that the government should pay 

[160] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

a rental therefor which amounted practically to 
an allowance for the maintenance of worship. 
These moneys had been regularly paid by the 
State to the Church from the time of the Con- 
cordat to the date of the American occupation 
and in round numbers amounted to an approxi- 
mate total of twenty-one million dollars. 

From the date of the American intervention 
payments to the Church for the use of these prop- 
erties had ceased, although the property con- 
tinued to be in the possession and use of the gov- 
ernment. The claim of the Church was con- 
cretely: ''Either give us back our property, or 
pay rent for the use of it." 

The properties consisted of real property, such 
as lands and buildings, of mortgages, and of 
Capellanias, a type of religious mortgage placed 
upon property to pay for masses and religious 
observances for the dead. The latter were usually 
in perpetuity. In certain sections of the Island 
properties were literally covered with Capellanias. 

After considerable discussion and extended in- 
vestigation, it was apparent that the claims of the 
Church were in the main just and reasonable, and 
that it was incumbent upon the Military Gov- 
ernment to take such steps as were necessary to 
recognize the rights of the Church. 

Governor Wood and the Bishop of Habana, 
representing respectively the Government of In- 
tervention and the various orders of the Roman 
Catholic Church, came to an agreement as to the 

[i6i] 



LEONARD WOOD 

real property which consisted principally of land 
and large public buildings in the city of Habana; 
the value thereof was appraised by expert ap- 
praisers. The nominal value of the mortgage and 
Capellanias appeared on their face, but there 
was considerable difficulty in coming to a basis of 
agreement as to their real value. This, however, 
was finally accomplished, and amounted to an ac- 
ceptance by the Church of approximately thirty- 
six cents on the dollar. 

This agreement was embodied in a formal doc- 
ument, in which the State was granted an option 
to buy the real property at the value agreed upon, 
at any time within five years from the date of the 
agreement; and until such time as the State 
should buy, it was agreed that it should pay an 
annual rental at the rate of five per cent, on the 
accepted value. The mortgages and Capellan- 
ias were bought outright. The Church was also 
compensated for the use of the property from 
the date of American intervention to the date of 
the signing of the agreement. 

Governor Wood said: "I consider this settle- 
ment of the question of Church property as most 
important, and one which will remove from the 
coming Cuban government a great and fruitful 
source of annoyance. 

"The position of the Roman Catholic Church 
in Cuba during the American occupation has, to 
a certain extent, been a trying one, as it found 
itself under entirely new conditions incident to 

[162] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

the severance of those relations which had for- 
merly existed in Cuba between the Church and 
State. The attitude of the Church, however, has 
been one of cooperation with the Military Gov- 
ernment in the work it has had to perform in 
Cuba, and the existing relations have always been 
harmonious and friendly." 

Towards the end of Leonard Wood's gover- 
norship of Cuba, the Bishop of Habana, Mon- 
signeur Donatus, was called away by the Pope 
to become Bishop of Ephesus. His gratitude for 
the fair-mindedness of the Governor was ex- 
pressed in the following letter, written at the 
time of his departure: 

"Honored Sir: 

"Called by the confidence of the Holy Father 
to a larger and more difficult field of action, I feel 
the duty before leaving Cuba to express to your 
Excellency my sentiment of friendship and grat- 
itude, not only for the kindness shown to me, 
but for the fair treatment of the questions with 
the Government of the Island, especially the Mar- 
riage and Church Property questions. The 
equity and justice which inspired your decisions 
will devolve before all fair-minded people to the 
honor, not only of you personally, but also to the 
Government you so worthily represent. I am 
gratified to tell you that I have already expressed 
the same sentiment to the Holy Father in writ- 

[163] 



LEONARD WOOD 

ing and I will tell him orally on my visit to Rome. 
''Yours very respectfully, 
"X DoNATus, Bishop of Habana." 

The last years of the Spanish rule in Cuba were 
characterized by an absolute neglect of every- 
thing connected with public instruction. Popular 
teaching had sunk to the lowest level. There was 
not a single schoolhouse in the Island. Teachers, 
always badly paid, lived in penury. School at- 
tendance had become insignificant, so that the 
greater portion of the population was illiterate. 
Nothing was taught in the institutes, while they 
were the scene of the most barefaced traffic in 
degrees and certificates of excellence. In some, 
certificates were subject to a regular tariff. Stu- 
dents who could not write a well spelled letter 
received an A.B. degree. 

After the war broke out, this class of insti- 
tute located at Pinar del Rio, Santa Clara, Puerte 
Principe, and Santiago de Cuba were entirely 
suspended. The University of Cuba in Plabana 
alone dragged on a sickly existence without in 
any way influencing public culture. 

The Department of Public Instruction under 
■General Wood therefore faced a colossal task. 
It began its work at the top, with the university, 
where in 1900 the faculty consisted of 72 pro- 
fessors and 24 assistant professors, while the, 
number of students was only 200. 

A great many of the professors were entirely 

[164] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

unfitted for their positions, which in many in- 
stances had been obtained in an irregular manner 
and were held very much as a sinecure, without 
any feeling of responsibility as to amount of qual- 
ity of service which ought to be rendered in re- 
turn for the salaries. They looked upon them- 
selves as privileged officeholders and were mem- 
bers of an irresponsible bureaucracy. Some even 
lived in Spain yet drew their salaries with due 
regularity. Others enjoyed practically limitless 
leaves of absence. Still others were venerable 
gentlemen whose days of activity had long since 
passed. 

It soon became apparent to Governor Wood 
that a thorough reorganization, combined with 
radical changes in personnel, would be necessary. 
No one disputed the fact that the university was 
thoroughly inefficient, but no one was willing to 
put his hand to the work of reformation, until 
Secretary Varona was persuaded by Leonard 
Wood to accept the portfolio of Secretary of Pub- 
lic Instruction. He brought singular courage and 
devotion to his task. 

Indifferent to the storm of personal abuse 
which was poured upon him, and regardless of 
the loss of personal friends or the creation of 
numerous enemies, he proceeded to mark out a 
straight line of advancement and firmly adhere 
to it. In this he was given through thick and 
thin the Governor's full support. The result was 
the reexamination of the great majority of the 

[165] 



LEONARD WOOD 

professors in the university, as well as those of 
the institutes of secondary instruction. Conse- 
quently many new men were obtained who 
brought with them the necessary energy and am- 
bition to make the university one in fact as well 
as in name. 

Certain qualifications were prescribed for stu- 
dents desiring admission, and the curriculum was 
rearranged, modernized and made into a four- 
year course similar to the courses in American 
universities. 

The Department of Public Instruction next 
turned its attention to the public schools which 
at the close of the year 1899 were in a deplorable 
state. Under Spanish rule the school-teachers 
were all paid by the government, but having lit- 
tle or no political influence were continually 
robbed by Spanish officials by means of deduc- 
tions from their salaries made on behalf of a 
fictitious pension fund. 

Sefior Varona and Governor Wood plunged 
into the work by which public schools were in- 
itiated or reestablished. 

A system was built up by which the teachers, 
janitors, and owners of houses were all required 
to submit proper monthly statements as to sal- 
aries, rentals and other expenses. It was many 
months before the agents of the Finance Depart- 
ment, charged with the payment of these salaries 
and expenses, ceased to find innumerable errors 
in the accounts ; mail facilities in many localities 

[166] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

were extremely poor, and in consequence much 
confusion resulted in the early months of the 
school year of 1899; i^i fact it was not until the 
close of the summer vacation that the innumer- 
able tangles had been thoroughly straightened out. 

Books and other supplies had to be distributed 
throughout the Island, until in all the schools was 
to be found an amount of school material suffi- 
cient lo meet the most urgent needs of the situa- 
tion. The text-books were carefully selected, 
were well printed, and were in every way a rev- 
elation not only to the school children but to their 
instructors. 

Early in the spring of 1900 the plan of send- 
ing a certain number of teachers to Harvard was 
taken up and actively discussed. The idea was 
first brought to Wood's attention by Mr. Cam- 
eron Forbes, of Boston, and Mr. Ernest L. Co- 
nant, of Habana. He at once assured them of 
his hearty endorsement and support. Shortly 
afterwards he received a communication from 
President Eliot of Harvard, asking if he ap- 
proved the plan, to which he gave an affirmative 
answer. > 

The War Department, through the Quarter- 
master-General, arranged to transport all the 
teachers free of charge, and to return them to 
Cuba at the completion of their course of study. 
The work of caring for them in Cambridge was 
conducted with the greatest attention to detail, 
and was in charge of a committee of young men, 

[167] 



LEONARD WOOD 

under the supervision of Mr. Clarence C. Mann. 

At the conclusion of their university work the 
teachers were taken on a trip to New York, Phil- 
adelphia, and Washington, before finally reem- 
barking for Cuba. In addition to the technical 
information acquired, all members of the expedi- 
tion went back to Cuba with new and favorable 
ideas concerning the United States, its people and 
their sentiments toward the Cubans. 

In July, 1900, a new school law was published, 
the old one having been found defective in many 
essential features. This law was framed after 
the school law of the State of Ohio, and worked 
with entire satisfaction, giving most excellent 
results. It was written by Lieut. M. E. Hanna, 
one of Governor Wood's aides, who had for four 
years been a teacher in the public schools of 
Ohio. 

Firmly believing that Cuba's future as a na- 
tion depended more upon the education of her 
children than upon any other one element^ Leon- 
ard Wood devoted especial attention to upbuild- 
ing the public school system. In 1901, out of a 
total revenue of seventeen million, he spent four 
million dollars on public education alone, three- 
and-a-half million being devoted to PubHc 
Schools. 

Before he left Cuba in 1903 there were in the 
Island some 4,000 efficient public schools with 
a total enrollment of 254,000 pupils, which 

[168]. 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

amounted to sixty- five per cent, of the total popu- 
lation between the ages of six and fifteen. 

The Department of Finance was charged with 
the care and safe-keeping of public buildings and 
public properties, the collection of State taxes, 
the preparation of tax laws, the supervision of 
municipal taxation, and the collection of internal 
revenue. Under Spanish administration it had 
also had direct control of the treasury, but Gov- 
ernor Wood maintained this as a distinct depart- 
ment, with one of his aides as treasurer. 

Enrique Jose de Varona was Secretary of Fi- 
nance until the ist of May, 1900, at which time 
he was appointed Secretary of Public Instruc- 
tion, and Sefior Leopold Cancio, former Assist- 
ant Secretary, was made Secretary. 

The office of the Secretary of Finance con- 
tained records of all public properties, and to it 
were submitted all appeals against tax ordinances 
and decisions. It was likewise charged with the 
disbursement of all funds expended for the pay- 
ment of salaries in the various other departments 
of the government. 

On January 22, 1900, the following order was 
issued: 

"No. 34, 

Headquarters Division of Cuba, 

Havana, January 2.2, 1900. 
"The military governor of Cuba directs the publica- 
tion of the following: 

[169] 



LEONARD WOOD 

"The herein-named persons are hereby designated as 
members of a commission to consider the general sul>- 
ject of taxation in all its aspects in the Island of 
Cuba; to wit: Enrique Jose de Varona, Pablo Des- 
yerine, Leopoldo Cancio. 

"The commission is requested to meet in the office of 
the military governor on Wednesday, January 24, 
1900, at 3 P. M. for organization." 

The purpose of this commission was to con- 
sider the general subject of taxation in all its 
aspects. It was hoped the commission would rec- 
ommend the abolishment of the tax on incomes 
and adopt one on values. This, however, was not 
done, and Governor Wood respected the decision 
since it represented the well-nigh unanimous 
views of the Cuban citizens, and because there 
had necessarily been so many radical alterations 
in the methods of administration and govern- 
ment, and so many of the new officials were en- 
tirely without experience, that each and every 
serious new change meant a certain amount of 
confusion and delay in the conduct of public busi- 
ness. 

Leonard Wood's general policy was as far as 
possible to relieve the agricultural classes from 
taxation in order that their resources might be 
applied to the reestabllshment and reequipment 
of their estates, most of which have been seri- 
ously injured or totally destroyed by the war. 

In spite of this handicap, however, rural Cuba 
[170] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

was built up and her properties put in production 
with a celerity never before exceeded. In two 
and a half years, the Island was brought from 
the wretched state of poverty and starvation 
to a condition in which suffering disappeared, and 
beggars were almost unknown. The marks of 
war were removed, towns were rebuilt and large 
crops of sugar-cane and tobacco were in the fields. 
With her own revenues Cuba maintained 4,000 
schools, an excellent and extensive system of 
charities and hospitals, adequate public works, 
a splendid system of sanitation, and had recon- 
structed her public buildings. She had even reim- 
bursed the United States for funds which had 
been expended upon quarters for American 
troops and for American sanitary work in Ha- 
bana. With all these expenses she had a reserve 
of over one million dollars in her treasury. 

Throughout his administration Wood's fair- 
ness and broad-mindedness won the cooperation 
of the Cubans. Whenever opposition was stirred 
up it quickly yielded to his frank explanations of 
the reasons for his action, which he was always 
willing to give. His frequent visits to all parts 
of the Island and his personal inspection of local 
conditions did much to preserve harmony and to 
create ever-increasing confidence and good will. 
Although his government was called "military" 
it was so in name only; the Cuba courts from 
first to last exercised full and untrammeled juris- 
diction. 

[171] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Four years after Leonard Wood landed on the 
pestilential semi-savage Island of Cuba, he de- 
parted again, leaving it a successful self-govern- 
ing republic, with a constitution modeled after 
that of the United States, with healthful cities, 
with public schools in every part of the Island 
and an upright, intelligent judiciary. More- 
over, the new republic was free from debt, an 
extraordinary tribute not only to Wood's own in- 
tegrity but also to his ability to exact integrity 
from the Latin-Americans and from his Ameri- 
can associates. 

In four short years the almost unbelievable 
miracle of transforming a people from the plane 
of medieval barbarism to one of modern civiliza- 
tion had been accomplished by this greatest of 
living administrators. So economically had he 
managed that he paid the expenses of govern- 
ment out of the ordinary revenues as already es- 
tablished, which amounted to not more than sixty 
million dollars during the entire four years, and 
at the end had a balance in the banks, so that his 
administration cost the United States absolutely 
nothing. 

To-day, fifteen years later, the Republic of 
Cuba still continues to function efficiently, a proof 
that Leonard Wood knows how to build for per- 
manency. It is the only Latin-American repub- 
lican government which has ever endured for 
more than three or four years. . . . "One can 

[172] 



GOVERNOR OF CUBA 

not stay long in Cuba," wrote Ray Stannard 
Baker in 1900, "without being convinced that it 
was not so much what General Wood did as what 
he was. He stood for Americanism. For years 
the Cubans had been looking to the great nation 
of the North for succor in their struggle. They 
had at last been rescued and the Spaniards had 
been driven from the Island. Their ideal of the 
bravery, the honesty, the power, the wisdom of 
the American was high. He must be everything 
that the Spanish oppressor was not. And here 
they had General Wood, the American, He was 
calm, firm, simple, accessible to poor as well as 
to rich. He was direct and absolutely truthful 
in what he said. He had none of the airs of the 
Spanish governors, this sturdy man in a khaki 
suit, who went everywhere, saw everything, and 
could neither be flattered, nor cajoled, nor de- 
ceived ; a man who quelled riots with his riding- 
whip instead of with rifle volleys. That was the 
American they knew. 

"It is Wood the man and the American whom 
they love and respect; and it is Wood who has 
won their confidence more fully, perhaps, than 
any other American." 

Wood's success in Cuban administration was 
commented upon by Roosevelt as follows: 
"Credit to him. Yes, in a way. In another way 
no particular credit, because he was built so that 
he could do nothing else." 

[173] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Secretary of War Root said of Wood's Cuban 
administration — "Out of a prostrate Colony, a 
free Republic was built up, the work being done 
with such signal ability, integrity, and success 
that the new nation started under more favorable 
conditions than has ever before been the case in 
any single instance among contemporaneous 
Spanish-American republics. This record stands 
alone in history, and the benefit conferred there- 
by on the people of Cuba was no greater than the 
honor conferred thereby on the people of the 
United States." 



[174] 



CHAPTER X^ 

TURNING THE GOVERNMENT OVER TO CUBANS 

A PROBLEM, which is of especial interest at the 
present time, when constitutional matters are of 
paramount public importance, is the far-sighted 
policy pursued by Leonard Wood, from 1900 to 
1903, in arranging for the adoption' of a sound 
national constitution for Cuba, so that he might 
eventuall}'- turn over the Island to the exclusive 
control of the Cubans. His efforts along this Hne 
began almost as soon as he assumed the Governor- 
ship. 

Before six months had passed he had so far 
overcome the acute problems of local diseases 
and disorder, and had so systematized the vast 
bulk of administrative and developmental work, 
that he was able to give time and energy to a 
consideration of the future problem of turning 
over to the Cubans the governing of their Island. 

He foresaw that the most vital step would be 
the election of delegates to a convention to draft 
a national constitution. Such a convention could 
not immediately be chosen, for the Cubans had 
never participated in an election of any sort ; and 
he realized that some preliminary training would 
be necessary. 

[1751 



■:^/ 



LEONARD WOOD 



Therefore, Governor Wood wisely decided to 
let thena cut their political eye-teeth on a less 
important general election. The first of these 
was held on June i6th, 1900, six months after 
he became governor; its purpose was the elec- 
tion of township officers to replace those who at 
first had been arbitrarily appointed by himself. 

This preliminary election was held in accord- 
ance with an exceedingly interesting new election 
law, which lack of space forbids giving in full, 
but which resulted indirectly from the following 
order : 

"Headquarters Division of Cuba, 
"Habana, Februar}^ 16, 1900. 

"The military governor of Cuba directs the publica- 
tion of the following: 

"The herein-named persons are designated as a com- 
mission to draw up rules and regulations to govern 
municipal elections: Diego Tamayo y Tejeda, Louis 
Estevez y Romero, Juan Bautista Hernandez y Bar- 
reiro, Enrique Jose Varona, Juan Rius Rivers, Man- 
uel Sanguily, Fidel Pierra, Jose Maria Galvez, Rafael 
Montoro, Antonio Covin, Jose Garcia Montes, Euse- 
bio Hernandez, Martin Morua Delgado. 

"The commission will meet at 104 Prado as soon as 
practicable. The services of the commission, being 
voluntary, are without salary.' 

The personnel of the commission, designated 
in the order, had been selected by the Governor 
with a view to represent fairly all the dififerent Cu- 

[176] 



TURNING GOA^ERNMENT OVER TO CUBANS 

ban political groups and parties. After a 
long and heated session, two plans were submit- 
ted to Governor Wood, one drawn up by the ma- 
jority, the other by a minority of the commission. 
After due consideration the recommendation of 
the minority was accepted. 

The elections were held on the i6th day of June 
and with the influence of the new Cuban Rural 
Guard were carried on throughout the Island 
without disturbance or disorder. 

They resulted in an overwhelming victory for 
the most radical and extreme political elements, 
and in the defeat of the safer conservatives. 

This was what Governor Wood had antici- 
pated. He permitted it to occur because Ihe 
knew it to be a necessary first step in the educa- 
tion of the people for self-government, and that 
in no other way could they learn the dangers of 
allowing themselves to be led astray by the glit- 
tering and impossible promises of political ex- 
tremists, who would perhaps to-day be called Bol- 
shevists. 

Nevertheless with the assumption of office by 
the newly elected township officers began a pe- 
riod of great difficulty for his government. The 
men elected found themselves entirely unfamiliar 
with sound economic principles, with existing 
methods of taxation, with municipal law, and 
with accounting and auditing. 

In many cases, they were at the very outset con- 
fronted with serious contentions, since in their 



LEONARD WOOD 

eagerness to be elected they had made the wildest 
promises to their followers, — promises they could 
not even begin to fulfil. As a result, their popular- 
ity collapsed like a pricked balloon, and gave way 
to complaints and fault-finding. They made vain 
efforts to appease their erstwhile adherents by ap- 
pointing them to minor ofBces and clerkships, thus 
unduly expanding the payrolls and laying up even 
more serious troubles for the future. 

The natural result was that they rapidly lost 
the confidence of the business and industrial ele- 
ments over which they had been called to pre- 
side. To avoid serious confusion the Governor 
found it necessary to keep numerous fiscal inspec- 
tors constantly at work in the provinces, protect- 
ing the interests of the Departments of State and 
Finance, and straightening out and correcting the 
abuses which arose — as often from ignorance as 
from deliberate wrongdoing. 

The Secretary of Finance found that only a 
comparatively small portion of the municipalities 
were keeping their accounts as they should be 
kept. By constant exercise of the supervision 
above referred to, the township administrations 
were, however, secured against serious losses or 
confusion, but the indications were very clear 
that, without this supervision and watchfulness, 
very serious confusion would have arisen; con- 
fusion which would have jeopardized the govern- 
ment. 

The minor irregularities due to ignorance or 

[178] 



TURNING GOVERNMENT OVER TO CUBANS 

incapacity were legion in number, and in addi- 
tion there were more serious offenses which 
made it necessary for the Central Government 
to suspend some alcaldes (mayors), to remove 
others and to indict still others. 

By the end of 1900 it had become unpleasantly 
apparent to the Cubans that in future they would 
need to exert far greater care and perspicacity 
in the election of officials. They became fully 
alive to their mistakes in the first election and 
anxious to correct them at the next one. 

Thus the education of the Cuban people in the 
problems and difficulties of self-government was 
wisely begun several years before they were actu- 
ally called upon to rule themselves in accordance 
with the principles of democracy. 

Confident that the bad results of electing radi- 
cal demagogues or impractical theorists had been 
somewhat borne home to the people by their un- 
pleasant experience following the first election, 
Governor Wood proceeded towards his second 
general election, this time looking towards a 
constitutional convention. 

He first visited the United States to confer 
with the President, with the Secretary of War, 
and with the Chief Justice. As a result the 
following order was published after his return: 

"Headquarters Division of Cuba, 

"Habana, July 25, 1900. 
"The military governor of Cuba directs the publi- 
cation of the following instructions: 

[179] 



LEONARD WOOD 

"Whereas, the Congress of the United States by its 
joint resolution of April 20, 1898, declared — 

"That the people of the island of Cuba are, and of 
right ought to be, free and independent ; 

"That the United States hereby disclaims any dis- 
position or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdic- 
tion, or control over said Island except for the pacifi- 
cation thereof, and asserts its determination when that 
is accomplished to leave the government and control 
of the Island to its people. 

"And whereas, the people of Cuba have established 
municipal governments, deriving their authority from 
the suffrages of the people given under just and equal 
laws, and are now ready, in like manner, to proceed 
to the establishment of a general government which 
shall assume and exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, 
and control over the island : 

"Therefore it is ordered that a general election be 
held in the Island of Cuba on the third Saturday of 
September, in the year igoOj to elect delegates to a 
convention to meet in the city of Habana, at 12 
o'clock noon on the first Monday of November, in the 
year 1900, to frame and adopt a constitution for the 
people of Cuba, and, as a part thereof, to provide for 
and agree with the Government of the United States 
upon the relations to exist between that Government 
and the Government of Cuba, and to provide for elec- 
tion by the people of officers under such constitution, 
and the transfer of government to the officers so 
elected. 

"The election will be held in the several voting pre- 
cincts of the Island under and pursuant to the provi- 

[180] 



TURNING GOVERNMENT OVER TO CUBANS 

sions of the electoral law of April i8, 1900, and the 
amendments thereof. 

"The people of the several provinces will elect dele- 
gates in number proportioned to their population as 
determined by the census, viz. : 

"The people of the province of Pinar del Rio will 
elect eight delegates. 

"The people of the province of Habana will elect 
three delegates. 

"The people of the province of Matanzas will elect 
four delegates. 

"The people of the province of Santa Clara will elect 
seven delegates. 

"The people of the province of Puerto Principe will 
elect two delegates. 

"The people of the province of Santiago de Cuba 
,will elect seven delegates." 

During the month preceding the election, Wood 
visited the principal cities of the Island, held nu- 
merous conferences with the most prominent and 
influential members of all parties, and exerted 
every effort to induce them to drop for the mo- 
ment all political differences and select their 
ablest leaders, irrespective of party, for the very 
important duty of framing a new constitution. 

The convention met in Habana, November 5, 
1900, at the Marti Theater, which had been pre- 
pared for their occupancy. The occasion was 
one of great public interest, and the city was 
crowded with visitors from all sections of the 
Island. Upon the assembling of the Convention 

• [181] 



LEONARD WOOD 

the following proclamation was read by Governor 
Wood, who then withdrew and did not there- 
after visit the Convention: 

"Gentlemen : 

"As Military Governor of the Island, representing 
the President of the United States, I call this conven- 
tion to order. 

"It will be your duty, first, to frame and adopt a 
Constitution for Cuba, and when that has been done, 
to formulate what, in your opinion, ought to be the 
relations between Cuba and the United States. 

"The Constitution must be adequate to secure a 
stable, orderly and free g-overnment. 

"When you have formulated the relations which, in 
your opinion, ought to exist between Cuba and the 
United States, the Government of the United States 
will doubtless take such action on its part as shall lead 
to a final and authoritative agreement between the peo- 
ple of the two countries to the promotion of their 
common interests. 

"All friends of Cuba will follow your deliberations 
with the deepest interest, earnestly desiring that you 
shall reach just conclusions, and that by the dignity, 
individual self-restraint and wise conservatism which 
shall characterize your proceedings, the capacity of the 
Cuban people for representative government may be 
signally illustrated. 

"The fundamental distinction between true repre- 
sentative government and dictatorship is that in the 
former every representative of the people, in whatever 
office, confines himself strictly within the limits of his 

[182] 



TURNING GOVERNMENT OVER TO CUBANS 

defined powers. Without such restraint, there can be 
no free constitutional government. 

"Under the order pursuant to which you have been 
elected and convened you have no duty and no author- 
ity to take part in the present government of the 
island. Your powers are strictly limited by the terms 
of that order." 

The sessions of the Convention were marked 
by very full discussions, and resulted in the adop- 
tion of a Constitution and an electoral law. 
The Constitution in its final form was adopted 
on June 12, 1901, seven months after the 
Convention first met, and the new election 
laws were published several months later. Mean- 
while another general election for the appoint- 
ment of municipal officers was held on June 
16, 1901, and this gave the Cubans another 
chance to learn self-government. Although they 
had learned much by sad experience during the 
year intervening since the first election, they still 
showed a tendency to vote for radicals and dema- 
gogues. This was particularly true in the larger 
towns, and as a result the Cuban public was again 
betrayed by its officials, though to a lesser de- 
gree. 

In Habana, the municipal government was 
characterized by very marked incompetency, and 
by a disposition to neglect public needs in a strug- 
gle for personal advancement and profit. The 
City Council did not fairly represent the most 
intelligent element of the city, which had a large 

[183] 



LEONARD WOOD 

proportion of educated, conservative people, but 
who unfortunately had neglected to take any ac- 
tive interest in public affairs. Results injurious 
to the city were only checked by the constant su- 
pervision of the Governor. Much direct inter- 
vention in municipal affairs was on his part made 
necessary by scandalous conduct of officials of the 
city. 

In the city of Santiago de Cuba, the adminis- 
tration was so bad that it necessitated the re- 
inoval of the mayor, and the election of a suc- 
cessor. Bad municipal government was most in 
evidence in the larger towns, where political ad- 
venturers, supported by the unprincipled portion 
of the press, had been elected to office. In each 
and every instance they gave a poor administra- 
tion. Due to Governor Wood's foresight they 
had their day under conditions which rendered 
their control easy, made the people less like- 
ly in the future to repeat the mistake, and 
caused the ultimate disappearance of the dema- 
gogue type of candidate from successful Cuban 
political life. On the whole, however, the admin- 
istration had improved so much over that of the 
preceding year that the prospects for the future 
were bright. 

By the end of 1901, after three years of Amer- 
ican occupancy, Governor Wood was able to in- 
itiate the final steps looking towards the transfer 
of the reins of government to the Cubans. 

[184] 



TURNING GOVERNMENT OVER TO CUBANS 

In accordance with the terms of the electoral- 
law adopted by the constitutional convention, a 
preliminary general election was held on the last 
day of the year 1901, exactly three years after 
the Americans had formally taken control of the 
Island, and a final one on February 24, 1902. 
A President, a Vice-President, a Senate and a 
House of Representatives were there elected. 

The newly elected congress held a preliminary 
session in Havana on May 5th, and on May i6th 
the following order was issued by Governor 
Wood, the final one of his administration. 

"Headquarters Department of Cuba, 

"Havana, May 16, 1902. 
"It is hereby made known to the people of Cuba: 
"i. That the Congress of Cuba elected on December 
31, 1901, and February 24, 1902, under the provis- 
ions of the electoral law published in Orders No, 218, 
October 14, 1901, these headquarters, having been 
duly convened in Habana on. the 5th day of May, 
1902, pursuant to orders No. loi, April 14, 1902, 
;these headquarters have examined into the credentials 
and decided that the following-named persons have 
been duly elected." 

Then followed a list of the twenty-four newly 
elected Senators, and of the sixty-one members 
of the new House of Representatives. 

"2. That the Congress so convened after counting 
and ratifying the electoral vote has found and pro- 
claimed to be elected President of the Republic of 
Cuba Tomas Estrada Palma, and to be elected Vice- 

[185] 



LEONARD WOOD 

President of the Republic of Cuba Luis Estevez 
Romero. 

"3. That the said Congress has adjourned to meet at 
Havana on the 20th day of May, 1902, at 12 o'clock 
noon. 

"4. That on the said 20th day of May, 1902, at 12 
o'clock noon the constitution adopted by the constitu- 
tional convention at Havana on the 21st day of Feb- 
ruary, 190 1, together with the appendix to the said 
constitution adopted by said convention on the 12th 
day of June, 1901, will be promulgated as the consti- 
tution of the Republic of Cuba^ and will go into full 
force and effect and thereupon and at that time the 
occupation of Cuba by the United States and the mil- 
itary government of the Island will cease and deter- 
mine, and the government and control of the island 
will be transferred to the President and Congress so 
elected, to be held and exercised by them under the 
constitution so promulgated. 

"Such transfer will be upon the understanding and 
condition that the new Government does thereby and 
by the acceptance thereof, pursuant to the provisions 
of the said appendix to the constitution, assume and 
undertake all and several of the obligations assumed 
by the United States with respect to Cuba by the treaty 
between the United States of America and Her Maj- 
esty the Queen Regent of Spain, signed at Paris on the 
loth day of December, 1898. 

"Leonard Wood, 
"Military Governor." 

Thus terminated Leonard Wood's governor- 
ship of Cuba, of which his direct superior, Elihu 

[186] 



TURNING GOVERNMENT OVER TO CUBANS 

Root, Secretary of War, said officially before the 
Military Affairs Committee of the United States 
Senate : — 

"From December, 1899, until General Wood 
came out of Cuba in May, 1902, I kept track of 
what was done, and studied the subject as care- 
fully as any business man ever studied his own 
business, or any lawyer ever studied a case which 
he was to try. I went to Cuba three times and 
went all around the Island and visited the 
camps and the army posts and the prisons 
and hospitals and asylums and the schools 
and public works ; I talked with everybody I could 
get hold of and got all the information I could 
get by conversation with soldiers and civilians 
and Americans and Cubans. I read the reports 
and I directed the course of the Government in 
Cuba, and I knew what was going on ; and I feel 
under a debt of the greatest gratitude to Gen- 
eral Wood for what I think is one of the most 
conspicuous and meritorious pieces of work ever 
done by an American." 



[187] 



CHAPTER XI 

THE CONQUEST OF YELLOW FEVER 

It is generally appreciated that the final build- 
ing of the Panama Canal, under General Goethals, 
was made possible through the application by 
Surgeon Gorgas of certain measures preventa- 
tive of yellow fever, based on the knowledge that 
the disease was transmitted by mosquitoes. 

But many have forgotten that the original con- 
quest of yellow fever was one of the triumphs 
of Leonard Wood's Cuban administration, and 
that it was under his supervision that the cause 
of the plague was discovered, and its prevention 
first accomplished. 

Dr. Rixey, the well-known army surgeon, once 
said: "When history has forgotten General 
Wood the Soldier, and Governor Wood the Ad- 
ministrator, it will still remember Doctor Wood 
the Surgeon who conquered Yellow Fever." 

When reminded that the actual work was car- 
ried out by Surgeon Walter Reed and a Board 
composed of Doctors Lazaer, Kean and Carroll, 
he replied: ''There were a few of us doctors who 
suspected that mosquitoes were responsible for 
the transmission of the fever, but it was only 

[1 88] 



THE CONQUEST OF YELLOW FEVER 

the least credited of several theories. We never 
had any opportunity to prove which theory was 
true and which false, until we worked under 
Wood. Then, at last, we had one in authority 
who possessed sufficient medical knowledge to 
realize that careful and extensive experiments 
were absolutely necessary ; one who had the power 
to authorize and finance such experiments; and 
above all, one who had the courage to brave the 
disapproval of the vast majority of his fellow- 
physicians and fellow-countrymen." 

The cause of yellow fever had been a problem 
which had puzzled mankind for centuries. At 
the time when Wood first went to Cuba, the most 
advanced theory was that the dread sickness was 
a filth disease, due to unsanitary conditions, and 
that it could best be prevented by individual 
cleanliness and public sanitation. 

The general opinion of physicians prior to the 
date when Governor Wood's investigations began 
is fairly represented in the ninth edition of the 
Encyclopedia Britannica, published a few years 
before the liberation of Cuba. To reread a por- 
tion of that article will make more impressive the 
tremendous advance made by the experiments 
in Cuba. The article says — "Yellow Fever is a 
* * * filth disease, the infection issuing from the 
soil or from some medium equivalent thereto. 

"In New Orleans in the epidemic of 1878 the 
deaths numbered 4,056. During the great pe- 
riod of Yellow Fever (1793-1805) the disease 

[189] 



LEONARD WOOD 

found its way time after time to the ports of 
Spain, the last severe epidemic on Spanish soil 
was at Barcelona in 1821 when 5,000 people died. 
In Lisbon in 1857 more than 6,000 died within 
a few weeks. . . . 

"It is admitted that the endemic influence 
which causes it, is effluvial or miasmatic from the 
harbor mud, or from the bilge-water of a ship 
that had lain in the harbor, or from the alluvial 
foundations of houses nearest to the beach. So 
far as prevalence on shore is concerned, it seems 
to follow the same laws as cholera and typhoid 
fever; that is to say, it is an exogenous or soil 
infection, a fermentation of filth in the ground, 
with a seasonal activity closely following the 
movements of the subsoil water. 

**To establish an epidemic in a distant port, it 
has been necessary that there should be carried 
tliither a material quantity of the specifically 
poisonous harbor-filth in a ship's bilges, and that 
the conditions favorable to its increase and diffu- 
sion by fermentation should exist in the new soil. 

"Steady accretions of the filth of slave ships, 
from the beginning of the traffic to America, 
down to its abolition in 1808, and its final cessa- 
tion previous to i860, would account for a pe- 
culiarly pestiferous state of the Habana harbor 
mud, of the beach and even of the water; in 
fact, the water of the Bay of Havana was pestif- 

[19G] 



THE CONQUEST OF YELLOW FEVER 

erous and full of organic matter, even where it 
was several fathoms deep, and there was a stand- 
ing order in the British navy against admitting 
it into ships. 

'There is no other theory of yellow fever to 
contest the field with the slave-trade hypothe- 
sis; that alone satisfies all the conditions of a 
correct syntheses-historical, geographical, ethno- 
logical, physiological, and, some would say, even 
ethical. ***** 

"The part played by putrefactive organisms is 
a subordinate one. In the general grouping of 
factors they can only come in after we have 
found the specific integral of the yellow-fever 
soil in its endemic seats; they can not elaborate 
the miasmatic poison of yellow fever without a 
definite pabulum, any more than the 'lactic ba- 
cillus' can produce lactic fermentation without 
milk-sugar. 

*'In regard to its sanitation at the endemic seats 
in the West Indies, Guiana, Brazil, Central 
America, and the Gulf States of the American 
Union, the same principles apply as to the other 
filth-diseases. The object is to secure a clean soil, 
and to that end drainage and sewerage serve 
best." 

Proceeding on this accepted supposition that 
yellow fever was a filth disease, the most probable 
one so far advanced, Leonard Wood opened his 
campaign against the fever in Santiago, in the 

[191] 



LEONARD WOOD 

autumn in 1898 along that line and at ftrst ap- 
peared to attain good results. By mid-winter of 
1 898- 1 899 the city was spotless, the streets were 
clean, all refuse was promptly disposed of, and an 
exceedingly efficient sanitary system was in oper- 
ation. As a result the general death-rate fell 
rapidly, until it was lower than in many cities 
in the United States. 

Six months later, however, in the summer of 
1899, suddenly and unexpectedly, a terrible epi- 
demic of yellow fever broke out, although when 
this happened the town of Santiago was as clean 
as any town could possibly be. 

At the moment, Governor Wood was absent 
from Cuba; in June, 1899, he had gone north 
to New England to receive an LL.D. degree from 
Harvard, intending to be away for ten days, 
but the very day his degree was presented to him, 
he was informed by cable that this virulent epi- 
demic of yellow fever had broken out in San- 
tiago. 

Within twenty-four hours, and without a mo- 
ment's thought of his own danger of infection 
in his then run-down condition, he started for 
Cuba, taking with him a ton of sublimate of mer- 
cury, twenty tons of chloride of lime, and 50,000 
gallons of petroleum with more to follow. 

He reached Santiago on July 9th, at the very 
beginning of the hot tropical summer weather. 
Ten days after his arrival the plague was broken, 

[192] 



THE CONQUEST OF YELLOW FEVER 

and the daily numbers both of deaths and of new 
cases sharply declined. 

It was, nevertheless, a hard fight and mean- 
while thousands had died. The epidemic was 
controlled only after Governor Wood had taken 
the most heroic and extreme measures, which in- 
cluded the removal from the city of all non-im- 
munes, the closing of all infected houses, and a 
thorough cleansing of the city with fire and disin- 
fectants, with the additional precaution of isolat- 
ing all persons stricken with the fever. All in- 
fected material was burned. Vaults and cess- 
pools were saturated with kerosene and fired. 

Disinfection was carried to the extent of sprin- 
kling the streets and yards with a solution of cor- 
rosive sublimate of mercury. Triple disinfection 
at suitable intervals was carried out in all quar- 
ters where the disease broke out. Regulations 
were promulgated to the efifect that all infected 
houses should be subsequently inhabited by im- 
munes only. Ships were forbidden to approach 
the piers, and non-immune passengers were pro- 
hibited from landing in the city. Army Head- 
quarters and all the troops were sent to high 
ground, fifteen miles inland. Non-immunes were 
not allowed to return until the epidemic had en- 
tirely passed. These radical measures were fi- 
nally effective in checking the disease. 

When the epidemic broke out, Santiago was 
as clean as a town can be kept. According to 
then existing theories there was absolutely noth- 

[193] 



LEONARD WOOD 

ing in the condition of the city -itself to account 
for an outbreak of yellow fever. This fact made 
Wood suspect that although every improvement 
in sanitation decreased the number of cases of 
all true filth diseases like dysentery and enteric, 
and also of semi-filth diseases such as typhoid 
and malarial fever, nevertheless yellow fever 
could not be eliminated by sanitary precau- 
tions alone, and that the theory which classed it 
as a filth disease was incorrect.-^Such a conclu- 
sion was a discouraging one, for it not only 
proved that all his past efforts had been mistaken 
and fruitless, in so far as yellow fever was con- 
cerned, but it threw into darkness the whole sub- 
ject of the cause and prevention of this plague. 
In short, it left him without a single proven fact 
on which to base future operations. 

That same summer there were very few deaths 
from yellow fever in the city of Habana, where 
General Ludlow, the American Military Gover- 
nor, who also believed the fever was a filth dis- 
ease, had most thoroughly and efficiently cleaned 
the city. As a matter of fact, the fever was con- 
tinually present in Habana, but the cases were 
few in number simply because there was com- 
paratively little non-immune material for it to 
feed on. 

In the fall of 1899, however, Spanish immi- 
grants began to flow into Cuba, and during the 
autumn and winter approximately 12,000 Spanish 
settlers arrived at the port of Habana, about one- 

[194] 



THE CONQUEST OF YELLOW FEVER 

half of this number remaining in that city. Al- 
though yellow fever was unusual during the win- 
ter months, there resulted a serious outbreak in 
December which lasted throughout the winter 
and increased in intensity during the spring and 
summer. It was kept within bounds only by a 
most thorough systematic house-to-house in- 
spection, by careful supervision of all sick per- 
sons, by the immediate removal to the yellow 
fever hospitals of all persons without regard to 
class or position who were taken sick with the 
disease. Nevertheless approximately 1,400 cases 
developed in Habana during the first six months 
of 1900. 

During that summer, the fever also ap- 
peared in the garrisoned towns of Pinal del Rio 
and Santa Clara, where the sanitation was un- 
der military supervision and where there was 
nothing in the conditions of the towns them- 
selves which could possibly account for the out- 
break. The troops had to be sent into camp and 
rigid local quarantine measures were inaugurated. 
In this manner the spread of the fever was event- 
ually checked. 

During these various epidemics, the loss of 
United States officers was very serious, and in 
spite of all precautions there was also a consider- 
able loss of life among the enlisted men and ci- 
vilian officials. 

The existence of this deplorable condition in a 
perfectly clean city, added to his own experience 

[195] 



LEONARD WOOD 

in Santiago, finally convinced General Wood that 
the spread of yellow fever could not be controlled 
by sanitary and disinfecting methods alone, and 
that a new scientific explanation would have to be 
worked out. 

The situation was one of great discouragement. 
It was evident that the disease could be com- 
batted in the small towns by controlling the lo- 
cal non-immunes and cutting off all intercourse 
with infected districts, or in extreme cases send- 
ing the non-immunes to the mountains above the 
fever level, as was done in Jamaica. Such meth- 
ods though difficult were feasible in villages, or 
in times of great emergency were possible even 
in towns of 40,000 to 50,000 inhabitants like San- 
tiago, but they could not be employed in a large 
city the size of Habana, without seriously and 
permanently injuring its commerce and industry. 

As early as 1881 a physician in Habana, named 
Finlay, had begun to express and publish the 
seemingly preposterous theory that yellow fever 
might be transmitted by the bite of a mosquito. 
He was ignored or ridiculed by the entire medi- 
cal profession, but nevertheless adhered to his 
belief, for which he was still vainly trying to get 
a fair hearing when Wood became Governor of 
all Cuba in 1900. 

He had never been able to make any impres- 
sion upon the Spaniards, or even to gain an au- 
dience with their officials, but he now received an 

[196] 



THE CONQUEST OF YELLOW FEVER 

immediate and sympathetic hearing from Leon- 
ard Wood, to whom everything relating to yellow 
fever had become a matter of vital interest. 

Finlay could not substantiate his theory as he 
had lacked the time and funds, and perhaps the 
temperament, for experimental work. This 
had prevented him from forging a single link 
in the necessary chain of evidence. He had no 
opinion as to the type of mosquito which might 
carry the fever, nor how the mosquito itself be- 
came infected, nor of the conditions under which 
it could transmit the disease. 

Upon Wood's suggestion a board of army sur- 
geons was appointed by Surgeon-General Stern- 
berg and sent to Habana to investigate Finlay's 
theory. Doctor Walter Reed was chairman of 
this Board and his principal associates were Doc- 
tors Kean, Lazaer and Carroll. Governor Wood 
allotted to them, from the Cuban Treasury, the 
necessary appropriation of funds with which to 
begin experiments. The medical officers took up 
the work in a very thorough and conscientious 
manner, starting at the point previously reached 
by Doctor Finlay. For the purposes of experi- 
ment, they accepted his theory that yellow fever 
was transmitted by a mosquito. After several 
preliminary investigations, they finally succeeded 
in inoculating mosquitoes with yellow fever 
germs. 

The next step was to prove that the inoculated 
mosquito could transmit the disease to human be- 

[197] 



LEONARD WOOD 

ings. Doctor Lazaer submitted himself as a sub- 
ject for an experiment. He allowed himself to 
be bitten by an infected mosquito, took the fever 
and died, — died for his country and humanity, — 
and seldom since the dawn of history has the sac- 
rifice of a single life wrought such good to his 
fellow men. 

Doctor Carroll also allowed himself to be bit- 
ten and had a serious case of yellow fever, but 
finally recovered. 

The two remaining physicians, Reed and Kean, 
then presented themselves at Wood's headquar- 
ters, and stated that they believed the point had 
been reached where it had become necessary to 
make a considerable number of experiments on 
human beings, if their final conclusions were to 
be decisive. They wanted new and larger ap- 
propriations to pay those who were willing to 
submit themselves to experiments, and they also 
needed official authority to make the tests, which 
were almost certain to cause further loss of hu- 
man life. 

They were informed that whatever money was 
required would be made available, and that Gov- 
ernor Wood himself would assume all responsi- 
bility for the experiments. They were cautioned 
to make tests only upon people who were in sound 
health and of legal age, and who had been made 
to understand the humanitarian purpose of the 
experiment, as well as the risk they assumed. 
Reed and Kean were always to secure the writ- 

[198] 



THE CONQUEST OF YELLOW FEVER 

ten consent of those who offered themselves as 
subjects. 

A large number of experiments were there- 
upon commenced, the details of which and the re- 
sults obtained are now matters of general knowl- 
edge among members of the medical profession 
and sanitarians. 

The Stegomyia Mosquito was found to be be- 
yond question the sole means of transmitting the 
"yellow fever germ. It was proved that this mos- 
quito could become infected only when it had 
bitten a person sick with the yellow fever during 
the first five days of the disease. It then re- 
quired approximately ten days for the germ to 
develop within the mosquito, before the insect 
could transmit the disease. All non-immunes who 
were bitten by that species of mosquito, under the 
conditions described, invariably developed a pro- 
nounced case of yellow fever in from three and a 
half to five days from the time they were bitten, 
irrespective of the surrounding sanitary condi- 
tions and apparently irrespective of their own 
physical condition. 

It was further demonstrated that infection 
from cases so produced could again be transmit- 
ted by the Stegomyia Mosquito to another per- 
son who would in his turn contract the fever. 

It was also proved that yellow fever could be 
transmitted by means of the hyperdermic intro- 
duction of infected blood or blood serum, even 
after it had been forced under pressure through 

[199] 



LEONARD WOOD 

porcelain. This experiment indicated that the or- 
ganism was exceedingly minute, — so small, in 
fact, that it was beyond the power of any micro- 
scope then in use to detect, which explained why; 
the germ had never been recognized or discov- 
ered. 

It was thus positively demonstrated that yel- 
low fever was not a filth disease, that it could 
not be transmitted by clothing or contact and that 
consequently all the old methods of fumigation 
and disinfection were only useful in so far as they 
served to destroy mosquitoes, their young and 
their eggs. 

In short, it was proved that the yellow fever 
germs could exist only in two places : in the body 
of a Stegomyia Mosquito, or in the body of a 
man. Therefore, if Stegomyia Mosquitoes could 
be prevented from biting those who were sick with 
yellow fever, the germ would gradually perish 
from the earth, and eventually become as extinct 
as the dodo. 

With the establishment of these facts, it was 
possible for Governor Wood to inaugurate an 
entirely new method of dealing with the disease, 
' — a method very similar to that now adopted in 
the treatment of malarial fever, only carried out 
more thoroughly. 

Yellow fever cases, as soon as discovered, were 
carefully isolated in premises inclosed with fine 
wire screens to prevent the mosquito from reach- 
ing the patients. The houses in which the dis- 

[200] 



THE CONQUEST OF YELLOW FEVER 

ease had occurred were sealed up and filled with 
formaldehyde for the purpose of killing all mos- 
quitoes which might by any chance have bitten 
the patient. The same precautions were taken 
in the houses adjoining on either side. 

The effect of this method of dealing with the' 
disease was startling. The fever was not only 
immediately checked but was soon brought to an 
end at a time of the year when it was usually on 
the increase. This was accomplished in spite of 
the fact that a large number of non-immunes 
were constantly arriving in Habana and in other 
parts of the Island. 

Cuba was completely freed from yellow fever 
almost at once. Not a single case originated in 
the Eastern end of the Island during the last 
three years of Wood's governorship and none in 
Habana for more than a year before his depar- 
ture. Moreover the Island has been free from 
the disease ever since. 

The disagreeable and costly process of disin- 
fection, formerly in use, was now practically done 
away with. The new means employed were much 
less destructive to property and much less annoy- 
ing to the people. 

Thus a plague, which in Habana alone had for 
years claimed an average of 600 deaths a year 
and probably caused ten times as many cases, was 
absolutely blotted out and became non-existent. 

Yellow fever still continued at Brazilian, Isth- 
mian, and Mexican ports, and against these 

[201] 



LEONARD WOOD 

countries Cuba maintained a rigorous and effec- 
tive quarantine with the result that from this 
source no new cases came into the Island from 
which mosquitoes might spread the contagion. 

The work of the commission, conceived and 
encouraged by Leonard Wood, and of which Doc- 
tor Reed was the President and directing spirit, 
was of the greatest importance to humanity at 
large. No medical discovery of equal importance 
had been made since vaccination for smallpox 
was first used. 



[202]' 



CHAPTER XII 

THE RATHBONE CASE 

When Leonard Wood was appointed Gover- 
nor of Cuba, he appreciated that one of his great- 
est problems would be to prevent American poli- 
tics from being introduced into Cuban adminis- 
tration, in the form of appointments made by po- 
litical influence with the resultant inefficiency 
and graft. 

Roosevelt was equally alive to the dangers of 
the situation and wrote in an article in The Out- 
look: 

"If political considerations of the baser sort 
are supreme in the administration of New York 
City, that is New York City's own fault; but in 
Cuba it would be the fault of the American peo- 
ple and not of the inhabitants, and would estab- 
lish a just cause of grievance on behalf of the 
latter." 

It was not long before Wood was brought face 
to face with the very complication which he had 
feared. 

Prior to his appointment as Governor of Cuba, 
[203] 



LEONARD WOOD 

a man named Estes G. Rathbone had been made 
Director of Posts for the Island. 

In the early part of Wood's government, 
frauds were suspected in the Cuban Postal De- 
partment. It was charged that over a hundred 
thousand dollars' worth of stamps, which the rec- 
ords claimed had been destroyed by fire, had actu- 
ally been secretly preserved and sold. 

Rathbone was implicated, and was indicted by 
the Cuban courts. His political friends in the 
United States came to his aid. They furnished 
him a hundred thousand dollars bail, and moved 
Heaven and Earth to keep him from coming to 
trial. Some of them, evidently convinced of his 
innocency, threatened to "get" Wood if the mat- 
ter were not hushed up. 

The case nevertheless took its due course in the 
Cuban courts, and after a trial, which lasted 
for over two years, Rathbone was convicted and 
sentenced to four years' imprisonment. He 
then appealed his case to the Cuban Supreme 
Court, but before it could come up for reconsider- 
ation, Wood had completed his work as Gov- 
ernor and had turned over the administration of 
the Island to General Maximo Palma, the re- 
cently elected President of Cuba. 

The new Cuban Government, as an acknowl- 
edgment of its debt of gratitude to the United 
States, decided to pardon and release all Ameri- 
cans who were then confined in Cuban prisons 
or who were under sentence, including those 

[204] 



THE RATHBONE CASE 

convicted of the Post Office frauds. Rathbone 
was given the alternative of taking his chance 
to clear himsel-f by standing on his appeal to the 
Supreme Court, or of admitting his guilt and ac- 
cepting the certainty of liberty on the basis of 
this general amnesty to Americans. He accepted 
the latter alternative. 

About this time Wood left Cuba, having suc- 
cessfully completed his gigantic task of recon- 
struction, which had won for him world-wide 
fame. Had he been an Englishman and rendered 
the British Empire such signal service he would 
probably have been made an Earl by his grateful 
country, and given an extremely generous an- 
nuity. Lord Cromer, the organizer of Egypt 
and recognized as Britian's greatest Colonial Ad- 
ministrator, said that Wood's work in Cuba was 
the best colonial work of the century and that 
he was the only man in the world who was com- 
pletely fitted to carry on the work which Cromer 
himself had initiated in Egypt, and only regretted 
that Wood was an American and not a British 
subject. 

It certainly was only reasonable that his own 
country should wish to confer some reward on 
him as a scant acknowledgment of her debt to 
him. The only reward available, however, 
seemed to be his promotion to the rank of Major- 
General; but this he was already entitled to by 
seniority, independent of his work in Cuba, for 
he had been made a brigadier-general of the reg- 

[205] 



LEONARD WOOD 

ular army by President McKinley, several years 
before and was now the senior brigadier of the 
Army and as such in line for the first promotion 
to Major-General. 

There being at the time two vacancies in that 
grade, President Roosevelt named the two Senior 
Brigadier Generals to fill the vacancies, Leonard 
Wood and Samuel S. Sumner. 

Contrary to popular belief this was the only 
promotion ever given to Wood by Roosevelt, and 
Roosevelt never ''jumped" Wood over any single 
officer of the Army. The only time Wood was 
ever jumped over anybody was when he was 
made Brigadier General for gallantry in battle 
in Cuba by President McKinley, — just as Funs- 
ton received that same rank for similar bravery 
in the Philippines. 

When Wood's appointment went to the Senate 
for the necessary confirmation, Rathbone stirred 
up opposition, and charged that he had not been 
given a fair trial in Cuba and that his conviction 
had been engineered by Governor Wood. In an 
efifort to strengthen his case, he also endeavored 
to discredit Wood and preferred various formal 
charges against him, even insinuating that he had 
accepted bribes. This held up Wood's confirma- 
tion as Major-General, and gave rise to a com- 
plete and searching investigation of Wood's past 
record by the Senate Committee on Military Af- 
fairs. 

The history of Rathbone case is of particular 
[206] 



THE RATHBONE CASE 

importance because it is the only time in Wood's 
entire career when his sinister enemies have ever 
dared to come out into the open. The resulting 
Senate investigation ended in their utter rout, 
and in the complete vindication of Wood's 
entire record; for once under way the Senate 
Committee not only dealt with Rathbone's spe- 
cific charges, but also examined fully into 
Wood's military record. 

Rathbone indirectly rendered Wood a great 
service, for the Senate investigation lifted the 
record of his patriotic work from out the musty 
files of the War Department, and spread it con- 
spicuously upon the pages of American his- 
tory, thus preserving for future generations a 
most conclusive record of his great service to his 
country, and of the high opinions which the lead- 
ers of his generation held of his character and 
achievements, — a record which might otherwise 
have been lost. 

It is to be regretted that lack of space forbids 
giving in full the report of the Senate Committee 
("The Confirmation of Leonard Wood," Execu- 
tive Document No. i, 58th Congress, 2d Session, 
January 4th, 1904, made public Jan. i8th, 1907) 
for its eighty-five pages of print are crammed 
with evidence and endorsement favorable to 
Wood. 

The rest of this chapter is made up of quota- 
tions from the report, which includes the follow- 
ing statements ; — 

[207] 



LEONARD WOOD 

"Mr. Rathbone testified at length, and submit- 
ted numerous exhibits in support of his charges. 

"In the examination of Mr. Rathbone and the 
other witnesses produced by him, or subpoenaed 
at his request, the utmost latitude was given by 
the committee. 

"The only restriction of the committee was, that 
purely hearsay testimony should not be received ; 
and this restriction was not in all cases adhered 
to; on the contrary, a number of witnesses were 
allowed to state what had been told them in re- 
gard to facts concerning which they disavowed 
having any personal knowledge. 

"This statement is made because of the fact that 
it was widely published in the newspapers during 
the progress of the investigation that the com- 
mittee were applying the strict rules of the courts 
with respect to the admission of testimony and 
that, on that account, it was made difficult to es- 
tablish the charges preferred. 

"The Secretary of War appeared before the 
committee and testified upon all the charges and 
points made that involved in any way the War 
Department or to which the War Department 
had any official relation. ***** 

"So far as the general charge is concerned that 
Rathbone and others implicated in the postal 
frauds did not have a fair trial, because of inter- 

[208] 



THE RATHBONE CASE 

ference by General Wood, no evidence was pro- 
duced to the committee in support of the same. 
On the contrary, in so far as the committee were 
required by the charges they investigated and 
the testimony they heard to consider the trial 
of the postal fraud cases, and particularly the 
trial of Rathbone, they were of the opinion that 
General Wood stated the exact truth when, at 
page 362 of the record, in closing his statement 
made in answer to the statement of Mr. Rath- 
bone before the Senate Committee on Relations 
with Cuba, he said : 

" *I reiterate most positively that every effort was 
made to give Mr. Rathbone an absolutely fair trial, and 
I declare that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, 
he did have such a trial; that he was given every op- 
portunity to prepare his defense ; that he was defended 
by the ablest lawyers in the island; that no influence 
whatever, directly or indirectly, was used to influence 
in any way the judgment of the court or affect its per- 
sonnel. . . . 

" 'In conclusion, it might not be inappropriate to in- 
vite attention to the fact that Mr. Rathbone's charge 
practically implies that the military governor, the in- 
spector-general on duty in Cuba, the Fourth Assistant 
Postmaster-General, a large number of post-office in- 
spectors of established reputation, the auditors of the 
island of Cuba, and five judges of the audiencia of 
Habana (three of whom were appointed by Lenuza, 
Mr. Rathbone's attorney, who was secretary of justice 
under General Brooke), all conspired to convict him, 

[209] 



LEONARD WOOD 

The creation of such a situation would have been im- 
possible. 

" 'The complaint would have had a truer ring had 
Mr. Rathbone declined to accept a pardon and taken 
his case before the supreme court of Cuba.' " 

With regard to the charges made by Rathbone 
against General Wood, and the Senate Commit- 
tee's action thereon, the following extract from 
the report may be taken as a sample : — 

*T (Rathbone) charge General Wood 

"With accepting gifts from an organization com- 
monly known as Jai Alai, to which he had granted a 
ten years' exclusive concession, the same being a vio- 
lation of the so-called Foraker law, which prohibited 
the granting of franchises or concessions during the 
occupation of the Island by the American authorities. 
The acceptance of these gifts constitutes a violation 
of Article 397 of the Penal Code of Cuba." 

"The charge was serious," says the report, 
"and it was proper to hear testimony with respect 
to it at great length as the committee did, only be- 
cause it carried with it the insinuation that Gen- 
eral Wood had granted a concession to the Jai 
Alai Society as set forth in the charge in con- 
sideration of the gifts referred to — in short, that 
he had been guilty of corruption in the matter. 
There is no testimony whatsoever that supports 
any such insinuation. On the contrary the tes- 
timony, facts, and circumstances are of such 

l[2I0] 



THE RATHBONE CASE 

character as to warrant the statement that such 
an insinuation is but a baseless slander. 

"Aside from the failure of the testimony to sup- 
port any such insinuation, the evidence affirma- 
tively refuses it. The record shows that General 
Wood did not grant any concession to the Jai 
Alai Society of any character whatsoever, and 
that consequently, to begin with, there was no 
basic for any such charge." 

The really important question before the Com- 
mittee was the promotion of Brigadier-General 
Wood to be Major-General. The more the Com- 
mittee investigated and cross-questioned, and the 
more they learned of what his past commanding 
officers thought of him and his work, the clearer 
became his well-earned right of promotion. 

The Committee's report concludes with the fol- 
lowing statements: — 

"When General Wood was made a brigadier- 
general in the Regular Army by appointment of 
President McKinley, and by the unanimous vote 
of the Senate, he was advanced over many offi- 
cers who had been longer in the service and who, 
until then, held higher rank than he had held. 
There might have been at that time some pro- 
priety in urging objection on such an account to 
his confirmation, but there was no objection of the 
kind because it was then well understood that his 
promotion by President McKinley was because — 
in the judgment of the President, who, under the 

[211] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Constitution and the laws, has a right to select 
without regard to seniority in the appointment of 
generals — General Wood had rendered conspicu- 
ous and meritorious services and had shown abili- 
ties and qualifications that well entitled him, in 
the judgment of the President, to the rank he was 
thus giving him, especially in view of the service 
he was then rendering as military governor of 
Cuba. The Senate and all others who were in- 
terested to have knowledge on the subject were 
familiar with the fact that the advancement of 
General Wood at that time was made for these 
reasons; and that, as a result of it, he was given 
rank over brother officers who had theretofore 
been his superiors. 

'That appointment and that confirmation do 
not seem to be now open to objection; but if it is 
to be considered at all attention is called to the 
testimony of the Secretary of War: 

"'.... Upon a review of General Wood's entire 
military record, I think it fair to say that no officer of 
the American Army below the grade of major-general 
has held more important commands, rendered more 
distinguished service, or demonstrated to a higher de- 
gree the possession of the qualities which fit a man to 
render valuable services to the country as major-gen- 
eral. 

" 'Will you permit me to add an observation upon 
the principle which sound policy requires the President 
to follow in making appointments to general office? 

" 'The law which recognizes seniority alone as the 

[212] 



THE RATHBONE CASE 

title to promotion up to the grade of colonal abandons 
that rule when it deals with general officers and im- 
poses upon the President the duty of selecting the best 
men for generals without expressing any limitation 
upon the class from which he is to make the selection. 
When such a selection is to be made, two different con- 
siderations always present themselves to the appointing 
mind. One is the desire to reward long and meri- 
torious service ; the other is the duty to secure the best 
possible man. ... It frequently happens that these 
two considerations do not coincide in pointing 
towards the same man. . . . Public discussion of 
promotions to general office usually proceeds upon 
the view that promotion is to be considered only 
as a reward, but grateful as it is to reward past 
services and important as it is that they should be 
rewarded, I can not doubt that the highest duty of 
the appointing power, which is responsible for the 
future efficiency of the Army, is to secure the man of 
exceptional capacity. Where these two considerations 
point to the same man, as they sometimes do, the 
course is plain. Where they do not point to the same 
man it seems judicious to fairly divide the appoint- 
ments to general office, making a part primarily with 
a view to rev»?ard and a part primarily with a view to 
future service. I think both considerations unite in 
this case. 

" 'These facts in General Wood's record and these 
views of public policy were the reasons which led Pres- 
ident McKinley to select General Wood for brigadier- 
general of the Regular Army in preference to many 
officers of higher regular rank and to appoint him to 
that office upon the nomination which you confirmed 

[213] 



LEONARD WOOD 

three years ago next February. The present nomina- 
tion is in the regular order of seniority according to 
the rank then estabhshed by the action of the President 
and Senate and indicates that the President sees no 
reason for reversing or departing from the conclusion 
then reached. 

** 'Very truly yours, 
" 'Elihu Root, 
" 'Secretary of War.' 

". . . There seems to be an opinion widely en- 
tertained," continues the report, "that General 
Wood is now by this appointment being 'jumped' 
over other officers senior to him in rank and of 
longer and more important service. Such is not 
the case. General Sumner and General Wood 
were, when this nomination was made, the rank- 
ing brigadier-generals of the Army. Both were 
at the same time nominated, to fill the two vacan- 
cies then occurring, to be major-generals. Gen- 
eral Sumner has been confirmed. Only one va- 
cancy in the rank of major-general remains, and 
that is the one to which General Wood has been 
appointed. 

*Tt would seem to be enough, in view of his 
good record, to justify the President in giving 
him this appointment, that he is now the ranking 
brigadier-general, and naturally the first man to 
be considered of the whole Army in connection 
with such an appointment. . . . 

'Tf, therefore, the question of determining who 
shall have this appointment must be confined, as 

[214] 



THE RATHBONE CASE 

it is, to the 15 brigadier-generals, a mere glance 
at their respective records will show that, while 
all are apparently capable and efficient officers, 
not one of them has a better claim, by reason of 
his past record and experience as a commander, 
than has General Wood; and, in the opinion of 
the committee, no one has, in view of his present 
rank, equal claim to him on the ground of merit, 
measured by the considerations suggested. . . . 

"For the reasons stated, the undersigned joined 
with the committee recommending confirmation. 

"Respectfully submitted. 

"J. B. FORAKER." 



[215] 



CHAPTER XIII 

GOVERNOR OF THE MORO PROVINCE 

When the United States took over the Philip- 
pines, the Department of Mindanao, the Moro 
Province, was considered the most dangerous 
and difficult post in the Philippines. It included 
the Island of that name containing 16,000 square 
miles, and all of the islands south of it as far 
as the British possession of Borneo. 

The Moros were bloodthirsty, polygamous, 
Mohammedan savages, living in the almost in- 
accessible fastnesses of its tropical, fever-in- 
fected jungles. They would not accept civiliza- 
tion for themselves, nor allow their neighbors 
who did accept it to live in peace ; frequently they 
refused to let them live at all. The chiefs of the 
various clans were jealous and suspicious of one 
another and carried on inter-clan and inter-fam- 
ily feuds, some of which had endured for cen- 
turies. They usually postponed these feuds, 
however, when they wanted- to attack any invader 
on their territory or to combine for forays 
against the Christian tribes along the coast lines. 

It had been their custom to perpetrate sudden 
raids of a most frightful nature upon the villages 

[216] 



GOVERNOR OF THE MORO PROVINCE 

of pastoral Christian natives until the latter were 
almost exterminated. They would surround 
an unsuspecting village, assault it with the cold 
steel, pillage and burn the huts, slay or crucify 
all the men and carry off the women into a slav- 
ery from which there was no hope of return. 
Their piracies extended as far as the Celebes 
Islands, hundreds of miles from Mindanao, off 
the north coast of Luzon, and their slave-hunts 
to points beyond Manila. 

They were fierce fighters, nourishing a bitter 
fanatical hatred of all whites and all Christians. 
They knew every path, cliff and gorge in their 
wild jungle home, and how to use them to the 
best advantage in preparing ambushes. The 
Spaniards had found them ecjually proof against 
European troops, or against the gentler methods 
of civilization. Spain had never been able to 
subdue them, although her Governors and Cap- 
tain-Generals had earnestly struggled to do so 
during three centuries and a half. Therefore, 
Spain's policy had gradually degenerated into one 
of bad-tempered neglect. 

After the Americans took over the Islands, 
there had been much fighting in Mindanao be- 
tween the natives and the United States troops, 
in which the Moros had usually come off second 
best. Captains McNair, Pershing and Helmick 
had criss-crossed the country with strong offen- 
sive parties, falling into ambushes and fighting 
their way out again, laying ambushes of their 

[217] 



LEONARD WOOD 

own, or capturing and destroying Moro strong- 
holds. While this fighting had not brought about 
real submission from a single sultan or dato, it 
had at least convinced the natives that American 
troops were much more dangerous opponents 
than their predecessors, the Spaniards. 

On account of these insurgents, our army was 
forced to maintain itself in a state of constant 
hostility, without attempting to set up among the 
natives any form of civil government. No real 
progress had so far been made in establishing 
order, because the American leaders operating 
against the Moros were not of sufficient caliber 
to dominate the situation, which could not be 
handled by military measures alone, and required 
an administrator rather than a soldier. 

The problems to be faced were so complex 
that President Roosevelt was in a quandary as to 
whom he should assign as governor of Mindanao. 

One day, soon after General Wood had re- 
turned from Cuba, he was in Washington in con- 
ference with President Roosevelt, w^hen the lat- 
ter spoke of his worry over the problem of the 
Moro Province. 

"I should like to go out there," said Wood. 

"Bully," exclaimed Roosevelt, ''nothing could 
be better! I hadn't considered you because you 
have just come back from five years' service in 
the tropics, and it hardly seemed fair to start you 
off again." 

Roosevelt made Wood not only Military Com- 

[218] 



GOVERNOR OF THE MORO PROVINCE 

mander of Mindanao, but Civil Governor as well. 
His power was thus complete and absolute. He 
was law-maker, chief executive, judge, chief of 
police and executioner. Strong medicine was 
needed for a radical disease. President Roose- 
velt said to him in effect: — "Your authority is 
absolute. The military forces necessary to back 
up your decisions are under your direct orders. 
We want results. The blame or credit for the 
results you obtain will all be yours." 

General Wood went to the Philippines by way 
of the Suez Canal, stopping in Egypt to make a 
study of Lord Cromer's methods of government; 
he also visited India, Ceylon, Java and the Straits 
Settlements, that he might before attacking his 
own problems in the Philippines be primed with 
all possible fresh impressions of successful co- 
lonial administration, gained both from the Brit- 
ish and the Dutch. Thus he let slip no oppor- 
tunity of adding to the sum' of his own knowl- 
edge which he had acquired while governor at 
Santiago and in Cuba. 

He was not satisfied with even this ample 
preparation for his approaching responsibilities, 
but collected and carefully read a library of sev- 
eral hundred volumes on various phases of Co- 
lonial administration. After his arrival in the 
Philippines, a visitor who saw these books, which 
covered three walls of the office, said to Wood: — 
"This is certainly a complete collection, but when 
do you expect to frnd time to read it all?" "Read 

[219] 



LEONARD WOOD 

it all?" replied Wood; "I've already read every 
book and they have helped me immensely." 

This intense study before undertaking any new 
task has been characteristic of Wood all his life, 
and in it may be found the root of the success 
with which he has met all his appointments. That 
he was always ready for each duty which faced 
him was due not to accident but to the most care- 
ful and painstaking foresight. 

Upon his arrival in the Philippines, and before 
proceeding to his post in Mindanao, General 
Wood spent ten days in Manila conferring with 
Governor Taft, and with General Davis whom he 
was to succeed in command. He also studied all 
available records relative to Mindanao. 

In going to the Moro Province for duty in the 
field with the regular army, Leonard Wood had to 
contend not only with a tropical climate and v/ith 
exceedingly difficult military and administrative 
problems, but he also faced antagonism from the 
subordinates he was about to command. 

He was met by that singular and well-known 
hostility which the regular officer of the United 
States Army sometimes shows towards the of- 
ficer from civil life, be he a National Guardsman, 
a Reserve Officer, or a Regular recently appoint- 
ed. Then, as now, this prejudice was not based 
upon any question of comparative efficiency, nor 
upon any estimate of capability for service to our 
country, but simply on professional jealousy of 

[220] 



GOVERNOR OF THE MORO PROVINCE 

the narrowest sort — a surprised jealousy which 
bitterly resents any outsider who shows unex- 
pected ability in troop-leading, as Wood had 
done both in the Geronimo Campaign and during 
the Spanish War. 

This feeling towards General Wood among the 
officers in the Philippines was similar to that held 
at the same epoch by officers in the United States 
towards General Funston. The officers in the 
Philippines knew little of General Wood's work 
in Cuba and those in the United States were ig- 
norant of Funston's feats in the Philippines. Nei- 
ther general had graduated from West Point and 
neither came from the old line of the Army. 

This antagonism was so contagious that it af- 
fected even the most broad-minded and capable 
of the regulars. It was strongest among the old- 
time officers, but the younger officers soon fol- 
lowed their lead. Thus Wood had not only to 
deal with the rebellious Moros, but also to over- 
come this opposition of his own countrymen. 

Very soon after he had settled down to work, 
however, the younger men began to swear by 
him. They soon appreciated that he achieved as- 
tonishing results and did so quickly. They found 
he was loyal to his subordinates, always consid- 
erate of them, and ever willing to delegate re- 
sponsibility and generously to judge them by the 
results they obtained. 

Soon even the older men began to like and ad- 
mire him. 

[221] 



LEONARD WOOD 

"Before I met General Wood his very name 
stirred indignation in me," said Colonel Duncan, 
who commanded in the Bud Dajo battle. "I 
couldn't help feeling that the promotion of a 
mere doctor over the heads of so many experi- 
enced and deserving officers was an outrage on 
the service. The bill which made me a Colonel 
made him a Major-General, yet I was so bit- 
terly opposed to his promotion that I was will- 
ing to see the bill defeated even if I thereby lost 
my Colonelcy. Afterwards when I served un- 
der him in the Philippines, I found him to be one 
of the biggest men I had ever come in contact 
with, a magnificent officer with a remarkably 
broad way of looking at and dealing with things. 
He is a great soldier." * 

Governor Wood sailed from Manila to 
Mindanao in a gunboat, and the day he arrived 
at the Capital of the Moro Provinces he said to 
his staff: — "Gentlemen, we have left no stone un- 
turned in our efforts to locate and study docu- 
ments bearing on the problems before us. We 
have also consulted all the officials who have 
pertinent experience, but this knowledge will be 
of small value until we have verified and co- 
ordinated it by actual observation in the field. 
Therefore, we leave at six o'clock to-morrow 
morning on a trip which may last six weeks or 
even longer, during which time we will study the 

♦ By James Creelman — Pearson's — April, 1909. 
[222] 



GOVERNOR OF THE MORO PROVINCE 

country and talk with as many of the native 
chiefs as can be persuaded to meet us." 

Next day his party plunged into the jungle, 
carrying only their horse equipment, and disap- 
peared for more than a month ; marching through 
wet jungles, crossing high volcanic mountain 
ranges, fording rapid rivers or ferrying across 
inland lakes in dug-out canoes. 

Among the natives, tales of the ''Great White 
Sultan" ran before him, and chiefs and datos 
and rajahs and sultans came out to meet him, 
partly from cunning curiosity and partly to meas- 
ure their wits against his. They came to meet 
him accompanied by their full retinues; — Prime 
Ministers, Secretaries of War, umbrella bearers, 
body-guards and personal attendants. 

In these conferences the General tried to im- 
press the Sultans with the fact that while 
America gave them certain privileges, and a 
fixed monthly stipend for themselves and many 
of their followers, she also imposed upon them 
certain obligations as, for instance, that of keep- 
ing order. 

Before Governor Wood returned to his head- 
quarters, he had not only met every native chief 
of importance, and visited all the American mili- 
tary posts under his command, but had found 
time to cross a hundred miles of ocean and pay 
a flying visit to Borneo, where the administrative 
problems faced by the British were in many ways 

[223] 



LEONARD WOOD 

similar to his own, and where he obtained many- 
valuable pointers from the Governor. 

When his long trip was over and General 
Wood had returned to his headquarters, he sat 
down quietly with his staff to work out a scheme 
of government for the Islands. 

The plan which he eventually adopted was the 
result of his painstaking study of Colonial ad- 
ministration, checked by the first-hand knowl- 
edge acquired during his trip and by his many 
conferences with the Moro Sultan who had told 
him much of value concerning their beliefs, 
wishes and prejudices, all of which he wisely took 
into consideration and respected, wherever it 
did not conflict with his general plan of govern- 
ment. 

He had found that there were in the Moro 
Provinces more than two score different tribes, 
all of them Mohammedans or pagans, except in 
a few seacoast towns, where the population was 
divided in religious allegiance between Christian- 
ity and Confucianism. 

Each religion had within itself many different 
sects, and in almost every case the tribal chief 
was closely associated with the tribe's particular 
religion, so that religious tenets were inex- 
tricably entangled with matters pertaining to 
politics and trade, polygamy and slavery, war- 
fare and social relations. The situation was, 
therefore, infinitely perplexing. 

Inter-clan murders were usually condoned 
[224] 




f .fJl.^fferti 





BEFORE AND AFTER TAKING" 
MEMBERS OF THE PHILIPPINE NATIVE CONSTABULARY 

224] 




A moham:medan moro and his fabiily 





THE PRINCESSA OK COTABATO AND 
THE SULTAN OF MAOINDANAO 



A MOBO BOI.OMAN 



-yf^rsjj- *asv • •"• » •«*». 'f^ 




A SEA MORO PIRATE CHIEFTAIX 




A RUINED SPANlsil tULHtir IX 3IINUANAO 




IX THE PHILIPPINES 



-%^^^ 




A TYPICAL VILLAGE STKKKT IN THE :M()R() PROVINCE 



1 225 



GOVERNOR OF THE MORO PROVINCE 

and went unpunished by any law; even murders 
committed upon fellow clansmen were never ade- 
quately punished. The penalty for killing a 
neighbor was limited to a fine of fifty dollars, a 
woman's life cost twenty-five, and the murder of 
a slave could be atoned for by twelve dollars 
given to the owner. The payment of these speci- 
fied sums constituted full legal satisfaction for 
murder, no matter how wanton or cold-blooded. 
An idea of the comparative insignificance of 
these amounts may be gained from the fact that 
stealing a bufifalo was punishable by a fine of 
forty-five dollars, while the market value of a re- 
peating rifle was a hundred and fifty. 

The datos and sultans claimed absolute right 
of life and death over all their subjects, without 
trial or appeal to higher authority. Many of 
them were hereditary chiefs whose titles dated 
back for centuries so that their rule was support- 
ed by the Oriental devotion and respect for 
precedent and heredity. 

Governor Wood divided Mindanao into five 
districts, Jolo, Davao, Lanao, Zamboanga and 
Cotabato and made an American officer governor 
of each one. These districts were subdivided 
into wards, one ward for each tribe. The ruling 
dato or sultan of the tribe was made Headman 
of the ward, on probation, in order as far as 
possible to enlist his cooperation under the new 
regime and give him a fair chance to make good, 
no matter how bad his previous reputation had 

[225] 



LEONARD WOOD 

been nor how many raids or revolts he had in the 
past perpetrated. 

Governor Wood himself dealt directly with the 
five American district governors, and they in 
turn dealt with the Headmen. Thus the native 
population had no direct official contact with the 
Americans, but continued to be ruled by their 
native chiefs. 

None of the dato's legitimate functions were 
taken from him when he was appointed Head- 
man; in fact, he became far more powerful than 
he had been before, for, provided he upheld the 
law, he was in his turn upheld by his district 
governor and by Governor Wood, backed by all 
the armed resources of the United States. 

If any one of the new Headmen did not main- 
tain order or failed in any other way to obtain 
the desired results, he was reprimanded. If the 
reprimand proved ineffective, he was then super- 
seded by a new Headman. If he resisted re- 
moval, the District Governor sent troops to ef- 
fect it. If he tried to evade capture he was re- 
lentlessly pursued until he could be run down 
and brought to book. If between the time of his 
removal and capture he led any revolts which 
resulted in casualties or other damage, he was 
held personally responsible and brought to trial. 
If when surrounded he resisted capture, he was 
killed. 

When a tribe revolted, the Headman alone was 
punished, and every effort was made to capture 

[226]j 



GOVERNOR OF THE MORO PROVINCE 

him without more fighting than was positively 
necessary. Once he was eliminated as ruler, the 
tribe was forgiven, on the theory that the Head- 
man was responsible for their misconduct, and 
a new Headman was then appointed. 

Under the old tribal system, the priests had 
also acted as judges ; Wood made them the tribal 
judges under the supervision of the Headman, 
and in all minor cases their sentences were final. 
In major cases and in cases between a tribesman 
and an outsider, an appeal to the district court 
was allowed. 

One of the chieftains whom the .Governor 
made Headman was the Sultan of Sulu, who had 
long sustained a bad record, both under Spanish 
rule and since the Am.erican occupation. The 
Sultans of Sulu had for generations not only mis- 
governed their own people but had, by their 
piracy on the sea and their slave-raids on land, 
kept their part of the Archipelago in constant 
turmoil. 

In 1899 General Bates had concluded by arbi- 
tration an agreement with the Sultan, by which 
the latter was to govern his province and keep 
order. The Sultan gladly signed the agreement, 
which he had no intention of keeping, because he 
thought it meant that the Americans would leave 
him alone, while he could continue to do exactly 
as he despotically pleased. If there was trouble 
he imagined he had only to write a note or make 
an apology. 

[227] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Everything worked out exactly as he had cal- 
culated until Wood became Governor. Up to 
that time he had cynically disregarded all parts 
of the treaty which were in any way hampering 
to him, and when called upon for explanations 
he made evasive answers. 

As soon as Wood was certain of the situation, 
he sent a force under Colonel Scott and Captain 
Rowland to visit the Sultan. The expedition 
was not a punitative one, it was simply instruct- 
ed to carry to the Sultan an invitation to come 
and confer with Governor Wood near Maibun, 
which was one of the Sultan's own towns. 

It developed that the Sultan had gone to Singa- 
pore on a visit, to dispose of pearls, which were 
his principal source of revenue. His method of 
collecting this revenue was unique. Every pearl 
fisherman was required, on penalty of death, to 
bring all his pearls to the Sultan, who put them 
through a sieve. All the pearls which stuck be- 
longed to the Sultan; those which fell through 
were returned to the poor fisherman. 

During the Sultan's absence in Singapore the 
heir apparent, known as the Rajah Mudah, was 
ruling in his stead. 

Colonel Scott had been ordered by General 
Wood to see that the Sultan accepted his invita- 
tion; and no one who has ever worked under 
Wood has dared fail to bring back results. In the 
absence of the Sultan it was evident that the 

[228] 



GOVERNOR OF THE MORO PROVINCE 

Rajah Mudah was the only person who could 
possibly serve as ''results." 

Colonel Scott, therefore, said to the deputy 
chief that in view of the Sultan's absence, he had 
better accept the invitation. 

The Rajah Mudah regretted that he had a bad 
boil, which was so painful that traveling was for 
him out of the question. 

Colonel Scott was at once all sympathy. "I 
have had boils myself," he said, ''and they were 
Hades. Americans are not infrequently afflicted 
with them but have made marvelous discoveries 
in their quick cure. My hospital orderly happens, 
very fortunately for you, to be an expert boil- 
healer." 

The hospital orderly was brought forward. 
The Rajah was so reluctant to show his boil that 
it became fairly evident it had no existence except 
in his own imagination. 

Colonel Scott then signaled to Captain How- 
land, who marched his company into the street 
in front of the Rajah's palace, and squads-righted 
them into line facing the door. The Moro bolo- 
men of the village came out of their houses and 
stood alert, awaiting developments. Colonel 
Scott with the utmost courtesy pointed to the 
company and said to the heir apparent: — "This 
is the Guard of Honor sent by the Great White 
Sultan to escort you to his presence." 

The Rajah Mudah had, during the past two or 
three years, learned that a battle with American 

[229] 



LEONARD WOOD 

infantry was a serious affair, and realized that 
although he might eventually annihilate Captain 
Rowland's company, it would be at a cost of hun- 
dreds of Moros lives. Then, too, it is so messy 
to fight a battle in one's own front yard. All 
things considered, the Rajah Mudah decided to 
reconsider his refusal. He announced that per- 
haps a ride in the open would help his malady. 

General Wood received him with all possible 
ceremony ; troops were turned out on parade, and 
the camp was made ready for inspection. The 
Rajah Mudah was given an exhibition of target 
practice and watched the American soldiers con- 
sistently hit a target the size of a man at a third 
of a mile ofif. He s?w the mountain guns taken 
to pieces and loaded on a string of mules which 
could penetrate the roughest mountain fast- 
nesses. Then he saw the guns reassembled and 
made ready for action in less than a minute. He 
was much impressed by the machine guns, one 
of which seemed able to fire as many bullets as 
a whole company of infantry. As a result of this 
exhibition he decided that diplomacy would be 
the best weapon to use with the Great White 
Sultan. 

There followed a very formal official lunch- 
eon with many courses, and speeches, and ad- 
dresses of welcome; the Rajah in the seat of 
honor at Governor Wood's right hand. 

Afterwards the Governor conferred alone 
with him; and confirmed the Rajah Mudah's 

[230] 



GOVERNOR OF THE MORO PROVINCE 

brother as Headman of Sulu. He also explained 
with exactitude what the Great White Sultan 
expected of a Headman and also just what would 
happen to him if he failed to produce satisfactory 
results. 

Thus the Governor organized Mindanao, set- 
ting natives to rule the land and parceling out 
the country among them until no corner was left 
without its little chief. Each one was supreme 
in his own bailiwick but was instructed to re- 
spect the authority of neighboring chiefs. Each 
one was in explicit terms told exactly what he 
could not do and what he was expected to 
accomplish. He was warned that he would 
be judged solely by results and that excuses, apol- 
ogies and explanations would have no value. H 
he would not or could not give satisfaction he 
would be removed, by force of arms if necessary, 
and some one else would be set to rule in his 
place. 

General Wood at first concentrated most of his 
time and attention on building up his general sys- 
tem of government and making it function 
smoothly. Ele carefully selected his five Ameri- 
can district governors and made certain that 
they were drilled to their tasks. Through them, 
he taught the ex-sultans and the priests the de- 
tails of their new duties as Headmen and judges. 
Until this had been accomplished he postponed 
initiating certain other important reforms which 
he had in mind and which he knew would meet 

[231] 



LEONARD WOOD 

with the strongest opposition. The most in- 
portant of these contemplated attacks was 
against polygamy and slavery, which had been a 
fundamental part of Moro life from time im- 
memorial. 

He supervised the organization of schools and 
the formation of the district courts, which were 
the courts of appeals, and the courts for the trial 
of inter-tribal disputes. He relentlessly punished 
murderers, head-hunters and feudists. He also 
improved sanitary conditions. 

Incidentally, many curious disputes were 
brought to him to be settled. For instance, a 
bitter feud was raging between an inland Moro 
tribe, and the Samals or sea Moros who dwelt in 
stilted villages, built over the water in the tidal 
marshes of the coast and who lived by fishing 
and piracy. The cause of the strife was Turtle 
Eggs versus Turtles. The inland Moros ate tur- 
tle eggs, which are laid in the hot sand above 
tide-water, but not the turtles; while the sea 
Moros, on their part, ate the turtles but not their 
eggs. 

The sea Moros were in the habit of killing the 
turtles when they came ashore before they had 
laid their eggs, thus depriving the inland Moros 
of their most prized delicacy; while the sea men 
maintained that the inland Moros, by eating up 
so many of the eggs, were causing a rapid de- 
crease in the supply of turtles. 

Governor Wood ruled that the sea INIoros 

[232] 



GOVERNOR OF THE MORO PROVINCE 

might kill the turtles at sea and in the white 
water of the surf, but that they must not molest 
them on land or on the wet sands where the tides 
washed smoothly. 

The Americans had promulgated a ruling 
against polygamy before Wood became Gover- 
nor, and when his general system of administra- 
tion was in fair working order, he began strictly 
to enforce this law, acting as usual through the 
five district governors and the various Moro 
Headmen. Violent opposition immediately de- 
veloped. No man knows better than Wood how 
to rescue a difficult situation by the saving grace 
of a sense of humor, and this was liberally applied 
in his handling of this problem. A savage Mo- 
hammedan Chieftan came to him to plead against 
his ruling that polygamy must cease. 

The Chieftan, sitting cross-legged before Gov- 
ernor Wood, began: — "The prophet has said that 
a man may have many wives. The Koran, the 
Bible of the Mohammedans, so ordains it" 

Wood's strong face widened out into an ag- 
gressively friendly grin as he replied, "Quite 
true, I have read it there myself." The savage 
Chieftain looked up with a pleased smile at this 
unexpected knowledge of the Koran. "But," 
continued Wood, "the Prophet has also said that 
a wise man will be content with one. I am cer- 
tain that you are a wise man, and therefore will 
not oppose my ruling against polygamy, which I 
shall continue to enforce." 

[233] 



\ 



LEONARD WOOD 

Early in his governorship he took the first ac- 
tive step towards the aboHtion of slavery, al- 
though at the time none of the Moros appreciated 
its true significance. 

The Spaniards had tried for several centuries 
to suppress slavery by issuing laws forbidding it, 
and then waging war on those who offended 
against their orders. This method had always 
been a signal failure because it lacked native co- 
operation, without which slaves could always be 
concealed. Aloreover, the Koran specifically per- 
mitted and encouraged the enslavement of non- 
Moslems. 

The Moros had at first captured Christians for 
slaves, not only raiding the coast towns, but mak- 
ing slave-hunting expeditions to neighboring isl- 
ands for hundreds of miles in all directions. 
When, for any reason. Christian slaves were not 
available, the Moros were not above enslaving 
true believers from neighboring clans. 

Wood's first step was to protect the coast vil- 
lages with small American garrisons. This made 
slave-raiding against these settlements too pre- 
carious to be profitable. Then, by arrangement 
with the Navy, the gun-boat patrols among the 
Islands were strengthened and coordinated to an 
extent which made piracy and slave raids to 
neighboring Archipelagos practically impossible. 
All sources of supply for Christian slaves were 
thus cut off from the Moros, leaving them no 
choice but to do without new slaves, or to enslave 

[234] 



GOVERNOR OF THE MORO PROVINCE 

fellow Mohammedans. Still worse for them 
Christian slaves were, by Wood's orders, rescued 
and liberated whenever this was possible without 
stirring up a rebellion, which he wished to avoid 
until he was prepared to deal with it effectively. 

Gradually the Moros became more and more 
in need of new slaves, and in order to secure them 
indulged with increasing frequency in the en- 
slaveuicnt of their co-religionists. 

Then, when the stage was set. Wood began 
his campaign for the absolute suppression of slav- 
ery, the last and most difficult step in his organi- 
zation of Mindanao. He called before him the 
various Headmen. Among the first to appear 
before Wood to defend the practice of slavery 
was Hadji Butu, High Priest and Chief Judge 
to the ex-sultan and new Headman of Sulu. He 
stated that the Americans had by solemn treaty 
agreed to respect the religions of the Filipinos, 
and that the Mohammedan religion distinctly en- 
couraged slaveholding. 

'That is true," said Wood, "the law of the 
Prophet Mohammed authorizes slavery, but the 
Kitab of the Koran forbids the enslavement of 
true believers, does it not?" 

Hadji Butu nodded uneasily. 

*'Yet to-day the majority of the slaves held by 
your master are Mohammedans." 

Hadji Butu nodded again, and explained: 

"Before the days of the gunboats, we could go 
to the neighboring islands and to Cebu and even 

[235] 



LEONARD WOOD 

as far north as Manila to get Christians for 
slaves, but after your gunboats came we could do 
so no longer and we then began to make slaves 
of our own people. As high priest I disapproved, 
but I was not powerful enough to put a stop to 
it without help, but you, General, with your sol- 
diers, will have the power to give that help. I 
am glad that you are going to stop this custom, 
and I will aid you." 

"I rule over both Christians and Moham- 
medans," said the Governor, ''and the fact that 
I protect the Christians from harm is your best 
guaranty that I will also protect you. I am glad 
that you agree with me about slavery. Together 
we will suppress it. Thus you will continue to 
help me enforce my laws and I will help you make 
your fellow-tribesmen live up to the precepts of 
their religion of which you are the High Priest." 



[236]' 



CHAPTER Xiy 

DATO ALI 

The reorganization of Mindanao proceeded 
without concerted opposition, until Wood took 
steps to enforce his ruling against slavery, with 
special reference to the capture and mistreat- 
ment of women. 

Most of the datos and sultans had been diplo- 
matically induced to give up this practice, forbid- 
den by the Koran, especially after they were 
made to understand that its continuance was op- 
posed not only by their own priests, but also by 
the "Great White Sultan." 

But there were two or three datos who were 
proof against conciliation or arbitration, who 
were so frankly unscrupulous that even the pre- 
cepts of the Koran were to them of minor consid- 
eration. Slavery was one of their time-honored 
institutions, and an economic basis upon which 
they had depended for many centuries. In their 
minds its financial advantages outweighed both 
their reverence for the Koran and their respect 
for the fightiilg ability of the Americans. 

Dato Ali was particularly incensed when 
American expeditions began to appear in his vil- 

[237] 



LEONARD WOOD 

lages to liberate recently captured slaves and re- 
turn them in safety to their homes. He was 
the most powerful of all the Moro chieftains, and 
his influence among his people was correspond- 
ingly great. He was not only a man of personal 
force, but was an hereditary sovereign, who 
traced his ancestry by written records for nearly 
four hundred years, and by tradition for a thou- 
sand. 

With the single exception of the Sultan of 
Magindanao and the latter's Princessa, Dato Ali 
was of the bluest-blood of the Moros of Min- 
danao. He had the additional prestige of success 
in whatever he attempted; and possessed one of 
the three largest and most carefully selected 
harems in that part of the world; he also dealt 
in slaves on a wholesale plan, and was a daring 
and successful gambler. 

His reign over his people had always been one 
of terror for he never failed to torture or kill 
a subject who did not obey him implicitly. His 
personal prestige was based upon many years of 
chieftainship, and this, added to the hereditary 
honors of his family, made him seem so invincible 
to the Moros who lived near him, that they never 
conceived it possible to remonstrate much less to 
revolt against even his most high-handed acts. 

When Governor Wood named him Headman 
of his tribal district, he had accepted the appoint- 
ment rather grouchily, but nevertheless played 
the game fairly well, until the ruling against slav- 

[238] 



DATO ALI 

ery was promulgated and energetic measures 
were taken to enforce it. 

This finally brought him into open revolt. He 
not only roused his people, but exacted help from 
neighboring clans, and defying the new order of 
things proceeded to organize a wide-spread rebel- 
lion. 

Many of the clans, and even many of his own 
subjects, had no desire to engage in a war with 
the Americans, whom they had learned to respect 
as terrible fighters. Most of them had nothing 
to gain and much to lose by a revolt. ■ The chief- 
tains were the only large slaveholders, so that 
the average Moro had no personal interest in 
the perpetuation of slavery, while war jeop- 
ardized his life and his home. 

He nevertheless found himself between the 
devil and the deep sea, for he was forced to 
choose between loyalty to the Great White Sultan 
or obedience to Dato Ali; either choice was like- 
ly to have fatal results. Most of the Moros chose 
submission to Ali simply because he was nearer 
and his vengeance more immediate. They cal- 
culated that such a choice had at least the ad- 
vantage of postponing the evil day of reckon- 
ing. Moreover, the Great White Sultan had 
shown leniency in the past, and there was hope 
for similar forgiveness in the future, while Ali 
had always been pitiless. 

Ali was encouraged by a simultaneous revolt 
of the mountain Taracas of Lake Lanao, a race 

[239] 



LEONARD WOOD 

of fanatical Mohammedans, who were the only- 
tribe which had never been subdued, even by the 
Americans. He then led attacks against the na- 
tives of the lowlands and against the tribes who 
remained loyal to the American administration. 
His part of the island was promptly thrown into 
tumult and red war menaced everything which 
had been accomplished by the Americans in Min- 
danao. 

The average colonial administrator would have 
assumed that the revolt was spontaneous, and 
have waged vigorous warfare against the tribe 
as a whole, instead of concentrating against the 
guilty chieftain. But Governor Wood was so 
closely in touch with the situation and had so 
much sympathy and imderstanding for his dusky- 
subjects, that he sensed the truth, and, although 
the revolt eventually affected nearly all of Min- 
danao, he faithfully adhered to his rule of hold- 
ing the Headman and not the people responsible. 
He, therefore, directed his principal effort 
towards capturing Dato Ali with as little general 
bloodshed as possible. 

Meanwhile Ali ambushed several bodies of 
American troops and attacked the garrison of 
Cotabato, basing his operations upon a fort 
which he constructed in the swamps of Sirinaya, 
into which he planned to retreat in case of Amer- 
ican successes. 

This fort had been cleverly laid out by an ex- 
Sepoy of the British Indian army, whom Ali had 

[240] 



DATO ALI 

persuaded to join him, and was constructed after 
the type which had been used by European armies 
from 1870 to 1880. It had a perimeter of over 
a thousand meters and was situated in the midst 
of a huge swamp many miles in extent, impassa- 
ble except by a few narrow trails leading across 
to the fort, which was surrounded by an en- 
tanglement of pointed bamboos (in lieu of barbed 
wire). It contained twenty-one large old-type 
cannon, ranging from three to five and one-half 
inches ; in addition there were five hundred small 
portable bronze hand-cannon, known as lantakas. 
The garrison consisted of about twenty-five hun- 
dred Moros, including many women and children. 

These details were reported to Wood by his na- 
tive scouts and he personally organized and led 
against the fort an expedition which included 
several picked battalions of infantry of about two 
hundred and fifty men each, with two 2^ -inch 
mountain guns and one 3-inch field piece. 

The expedition proceeded up the Cotabato 
River until it reached a point about twelve miles 
from the fort, there it disembarked and com- 
menced its march across the swamp. 

Almost immediately a very sluggish marshy 
stream about twelve feet deep and nearly a mile 
wide was encountered. This was not navigable, 
even for the smallest boats, being covered with 
"sudge" much like that encountered by the ex- 
plorer Stanley at the headwaters of the Nile. 
[This sudge consisted of a spongy, floating layer, 

[241] 



LEONARD WOOD 

of intertwined water grasses and water-grass 
roots about two feet thick. 

It was found that an infantryman, if he went 
at a run, could cross this mat without sinking 
above the ankles, the sudge giving away behind 
him much as rubber ice sinks behind the daring 
skater. An advance guard was first established 
on the far bank to protect the men en route, and 
then the work of transporting the mountain guns 
was started. Their barrels, towed by runners, 
were with little difficulty rapidly dragged across , 
on improvised sleds of bamboo; the ammunition 
was taken over by hand a round at a time. But 
the cradles and trails of the guns were so heavy 
that they frequently broke through the surface. 
Whereupon the gunners were obliged to dive 
down through holes in the sudge, into the dark 
water beneath in order to attach fresh ropes. 

After several days of arduous progress, com- 
plicated by two ambushes, the expedition finally 
arrived before the fort. 

Knowing that there were inside the Moro fort 
many ignorant and deluded people, who really had 
no desire to fight the Americans and had joined 
All merely because they feared him. Wood was 
anxious to disperse them before inflicting any 
casualties. Moreover, he never forgot his policy 
of punishing the chief and not the people. 

All attempts at parleys, however, proved un- 
successful, the American emissaries being fired 
upon by the defenders. 

[242] 



DATO ALI 

It would have been easy to surround the fort, 
lay siege to it and eventually carry it by storm, 
but this would not only have involved serious loss 
of life to the American troops, but would have 
meant the practical annihilation of all Dato All's 
misguided Mohammedan followers, who in a bat- 
tle with Christians felt bound, one and all, to fight 
to the bitter end. 

General Wood disposed his forces on three 
sides of the fort, but well out of range of its 
guns. He carefully left open the fourth side 
which looked towards the mountains. 

The cannon used by All's men were of old types, 
which, though extremely deadly at close quarters, 
have a maximum range of only a mile. Wood 
emplaced his modern American artillery in the 
open in full view of the fort but about one mile 
and a half away. 

When all was ready and the defenders had had 
ample time to take in the situation and to count 
the American guns, one solitary shrapnel was 
fired, which went screaming through the air and 
burst squarely in the middle of the fort. In- 
stantly the Moro artillery responded with a furi- 
ous cannonade, but all their shells fell harmlessly 
into the swamp half a mile in front of the Ameri- 
can position. It was soon evident to the defend- 
ers that they were powerless to reply effectively. 

Five or six hours later, toward evening, a sec- 
ond shell from the American gun followed the 
first one. The American artillery commander 

[243] 



LEONARD WOOD 

arranged a framework of sights in front of a 
gun, so that it could with the aid of a small lamp 
be accurately aimed even in the darkness. At 
midnight a third shell was fired. 

Next morning at sunrise the three-inch field 
gun sent a single shot into the fort. Breakfast 
and lunch were announced to the Moros in simi- 
lar manner. 

This intermittent firing had a moral effect 
upon the Oriental temperament even greater 
than would have been produced by a continuous 
heavy bombardment. Years afterwards Moros 
who had been in the fort would complain *'We 
never knew when a new sheave of shrapnel bul- 
lets would come down from heaven like rain ; the 
waiting was worse for us than death." 

Dato All's followers began slowly to under- 
stand the hint General Wood intended to convey. 
They clearly perceived that their batteries were 
powerless to injure the Americans, while the 
American artillery could, if it chose, easily fire 
twenty shells a minute. 

The hopeless, helpless waiting finally became 
unendurable, and by twos and threes the Moros 
began to steal away to the mountains through the 
gap which Wood had left open for that very pur- 
pose. Ali, powerless to stop them, finally fled 
himself; with him a fugitive in the mountains, 
his revolt was manifestly a fiasco. 

This ridiculous failure of his most carefully 
laid plans, caused him to lose face with his fol- 

[244] 



DATO ALI 

lowers, and greatly decreased the hereditary and 
personal prestige upon which his power was 
founded. His people gradually returned to their 
villages, where they were not molested by the 
Americans. Leonard Wood's generosity won 
their confidence and respect, which more than 
compensated for the trouble which Ali caused 
during the succeeding ten months before he was 
finally run down. 

American expeditions now relentlessly hunted 
him through the jungles to which he had fled, ac- 
companied only by his personal followers and the 
members of his family. 

On one occasion, Ali ambushed a small Ameri- 
can scouting party and succeeded in killing a 
number of the men. This occurred near Simpi- 
tan, just west of Lake Liguasan, a large shallow 
body south of the Cotabato River covered with 
floating islands of sudge. This water is very 
shallow and only navigable for small ship-boats 
and dugouts. A channel runs between the is- 
lands of sudge, but as these move about with every 
change of wind, the channel is constantly shifting, 
so that even the natives living on the shores often 
get lost in attempting a crossing. The shortest 
trip on record was eighteen hours. 

The General collected all the available dug- 
outs in the vicinity and started through to Simpi- 
tal with as many men as the available canoes 
would carry, in the hope to corner Ali before 
he could get back to the high ranges. The guides 

[245] 



LEONARD WOOD 

in the leading boats often took false channels, and 
the party would then be obliged to turn back and 
try again. The General himself was in a small 
American boat, with one aide and two Moro pad- 
dlers, the four men taking turns at the paddles, 
two at a time. 

When darkness came on and it was necessary 
to tie up for the night, the boats were shoved well 
into patches of lotus plants which were encoun- 
tered from time to time. There were two excel- 
lent reasons for selecting these refuges. The 
patches of lotus, which often cover an acre or 
more of surface, are fixed. They grow in very 
shallow water, are firmly rooted and are the only 
immovable bodies in all these miles of floating 
sudge. Again, the mosquitoes of the lake which 
are terrible pests, making sleep impossible, do not 
for some reason come near the lotus plants. In 
these patches alone can one be free from the tor- 
ment of their sting. The odor of the lotus flower, 
which is most agreeable to human beings, is pre- 
sumably disagreeable to these insects. 

The small size of even the General's boat can 
be estimated from the fact that there was no 
room for the two Moros to sleep, except by lying 
across the legs of the aide. At intervals during 
the night when he became so cramped and numb 
that he had to change his position, he was first 
obliged to wake the two Moros before he could 
move. 

[246] 



DATO ALI 

Even during the pursuit of Dato Ali every pos- 
sible last effort was made to persuade him to sur- 
render and thus save more bloodshed. 

Shortly after the Simpitan affair, a half-caste 
reported that he believed he could get into com- 
munication with Ali. The General had a Navy 
gunboat put at his disposal, and sent an aide with 
him up the Cotabato River to see what could be 
accomplished. 

All's brother, Jimbangan, had been captured 
near Sirinaya, by troops pursuing Ali, and was 
then a prisoner in the town of Cotabato. One 
of his sons was secured as a messenger. He 
would start out with a message, going to the last 
place that Ali had been heard from and then 
tracing him from place to place until he caught 
up with him. Ali would then send back his re- 
ply and immediately move on, fearing treachery. 
In this slow manner the parleys were carried on. 
There would often be an interval of a week or ten 
days between the sending of a message and re- 
ceiving the reply. 

A meeting was finally arranged to be held on 
the banks of the Cotabato, for which very de- 
tailed arrangements were made through the mes- 
senger. These included the cutting out of the 
high grass in an area of some four or five acres, 
so that the conference could take place in its cen- 
ter without chance of an ambush by either side. 
Each party to the meeting was to consist of five 
persons. The District Governor and the aide 

[247] 



LEONARD WOOD 

were to head the American party, which also in- 
cluded the captain of the gunboat and two armed 
enlisted men. 

After several postponements, the parley was 
finally held in a pouring rain, and after a great 
deal of talk AH agreed to surrender, but stated 
that before doing so he wished to give presents 
to the Governor and the aide. 

These presents were quickly produced and 
proved to be two very handsome bronze lan- 
takas. Ali, however, began to be nervous, and 
after a little time said he had not been informed 
that the Captain of the Gunboat was to be one 
of the five Americans present at the meeting, and 
that he wished to give him a present also. 

In courtesy there was nothing to do but wait 
patiently for the arrival of this third present, 
although the Americans suspected it was merely 
a ruse of Ali to gain time for some secret pur- 
pose. 

During the long wait for this present, All's 
principal lieutenant definitely persuaded him to 
put off his surrender until another effort had 
been made to regain his lost prestige with the 
clans. Eventually the present for the gunboat 
Captain arrived, and proved to be an old pony. 
After it had been duly presented, Ali made an 
appointment for a new meeting the following 
Sunday, at which all the arms of his followers 
were to be turned in. The conference was then 
terminated. 

[248] 



DATO ALI 

Although AH did not keep this appointment, he 
did agree, after a great deal more correspondence, 
to meet the Americans at another point and there 
again consented to surrender. When he asked 
how he was to begin his surrendering, he was 
told to turn over his arms. He said, for that 
he would have to go back to his people to give 
the necessary orders. In a few minutes, guns of 
the older patterns, including some Tower mus- 
kets loaded with broken glass, began to arrive. 
This sort of thing continued until dark, but it 
was afterwards learned that all the time Ali was 
getting away as fast as ever he could. As a truce 
had been agreed upon, there was nothing for the 
Americans to do but let him go, and some ten 
days later, negotiations were finally broken off. 
They had covered a period of several months, and 
illustrate Wood's patient efforts to induce the 
chief to surrender without bloodshed, and thus 
avoid inflicting hardships on the few ignorant 
people who still followed him, and who obeyed 
him only through fear. 

It now becam.e clearly evident that Dato Ali 
had really no intention whatever of surrendering, 
that he was simply playing for time, in the hope 
that the matter would blow over and his sins 
finally be forgotten. 

It is characteristic of Leonard Wood that when 
all efforts at conciliation or arbitration have 
failed and an issue must finally be squarely faced, 

[249] 



LEONARD WOOD 

he always meets it fearlessly, no matter how un- 
pleasant it may prove. 

Therefore the pursuit of AH was now taken up 
relentlessly. Expedition after expedition went 
out to capture him only to return empty-handed. 
Every clew to his whereabouts was carefully in- 
vestigated and followed up. Finally, after nearly 
a year of persistent but fruitless effort, one of 
Wood's personal aides, Captain McCoy, led a 
desperate band of Americans across two hundred 
miles of unbroken jungle on a secret forced 
march, during the last days of which they were 
reduced to living on lizards and roots, until one 
morning they walked into Dato Ali's camp, tak- 
ing it completely by surprise. There was a brief 
and savage fight, during which Lieutenant Rem- 
ington shot the Dato with his pistol as Ali stood 
on the porch of his hut firing with a rifle at the 
American soldiers. 

Thus the man who had once been Mindanao's 
most powerful chieftain died a fugitive, and from 
his fate the other Moro sultans learned a crown- 
ing and never-to-be-forgotten lesson. 

Wood welcomed assignment to the ''most dan- 
gerous place in the Philippine Government, and 
fought Moros through woods and swamps and 
mountains and jungles for a year and a half, dur- 
ing which time he was practically continually un- 
der fire. He sent no soldiers where he would not 
go himself; he shared every hardship and foupht 
shoulder to shoulder with the regulars. His men 

[250] 



DATO ALI 

loved him ; his associates respected him ; and his 
Government had confidence in him.* 

"Nowhere did his genius shine brighter than in 
dealing with the natives in a diplomatic way. 
Where force availed nothing, he won by diplo- 
macy and established peace and prosperity in re- 
gions where such things, presumably, had never 
been obtained since the world began. 

"He went from the rulership of this bad prov- 
ince of Mindanao, leaving behind him a land of 
law and order, of schoolhouses, and of courts of 
justice, a land of liberated womanhood that be- 
fore his coming had been enslaved and held as 
chattel. He created a new world in the short 
space of three years." 

In 1905, when Wood returned to America on 
sick leave, he left the Moro -provinces the best 
governed section of the Pnilippines, and for the 
first time in history the Moros were at peace with 
the world and with each other. 

*The Wilmington (N. C.) Star. 



[251] 



CHAPTER XV 

THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

'As a Military Administrator General Wood has 
filled a greater number of important positions 
than any other living American soldier. He was 
Commander of the Philippines Division from 
1906-1908, Commander of the Eastern Depart- 
ment of the United States 1909-1910, Chief of 
Staff of the United States Army 1910-1914, Com- 
mander of the Eastern Department 1914-1917, 
Commander of the Southeastern Department for 
a few months in 19 17, Commander of the 89th and 
loth American Infantry Divisions during their 
training periods, and is now Commander of the 
Central Department. 

The most striking characteristic of his work as 
a military administrator is the extraordinary 
degree to which he has been able to subordi- 
nate the idea that an army is an engine of de- 
struction, and the extent to which he has suc- 
ceeded in making it an instrument of constructive 
work in every community where he has been sta- 
tioned. 

He has never employed military force, except 
as a last resort, after all other means of accom- 

[252] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

plishing his object have been tried and have 
failed ; he has an unerring instinct for the moment 
when further diplomacy is useless, when it will 
only be interpreted as weakness, and when force 
is the only road to peace. 

In his official reports we continually find sucK 
statements as the following, written in the Philip- 
pines : 

"Conditions among the Moros throughout the 
department are generally peaceful. The estab- 
lishment of civil government, and the extension 
of certain laws and regulations have caused some 
excitement, and at times serious resistance, espe- 
cially the laws prohibiting slavery, slave dealing, 
and slave catching. . . . Force was only resorted 
to after peaceful means had failed, and in almost 
every instance actual fighting was initiated by the 
Moros." 

A year later he was able to report: 

"Conditions in all which pertain to public or- 
der and the observance of law have greatly im- 
proved during the past year, and many people 
never before reached have been brought under 
the influence of the Government. 

"Slave-catching, slave-dealing and slave-hold- 
ing have practically ceased, and observance of 
the instructions of the duly constituted author- 
ities has become the rule rather than the ex- 
ception. Occasionally there have been fanatical 
attempts to cause an uprising; in every instance 
these have been promptly suppressed and the au- 

[253] 



LEONARD WOOD 

thors severely punished. It is regretted that the 
operations necessary to this end have resulted in 
the death of some excellent officers and men, 
killed in the performance of duty, and in a very 
considerable loss among the Moros. At present 
officials of the Government can go without an 
escort, where it formerly required an extremely 
strong one." 

In a lecture given before the American Acad- 
emy in 19 1 6 on the "Constructive Work of the 
Army" he forcefully summed up his views of the 
mission of our military forces. His ideas are by 
no means those of the majority of his fellow of- 
ficers, but are rather an expression of his own 
ideals and conceptions of the role of the army : 

"I want to say a word to you about the life- 
saving work of our country in the tropics through 
its principal agent, the Army, * * * an agent 
whose life-saving work has been of infinite value 
to mankind and to the nation. 

"We in America understand too little the work 
of the Army, too little of what it has done to 
save life, and we talk too much of it as a destruc- 
tive force. There are very few who realize that 
in ten peaceful Fourth of July celebrations of a 
war finished about 135 years ago we killed some 
1,800 people, mostly young boys, and wounded 
some 35,000, mostly boys and young children. 
The killed of those ten peaceful single day cele- 
brations about equal all the killed of the Span- 
ish war and the Philippine Rebellion and the In- 

[254] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

dian wars of the preceding ten years. And the 
wounded of those ten peaceful day celebrations, 
were, roughly, seven times the wounded of all 
those wars. 

**War is by no means the greatest cause of 
death among the human race. Typhoid fever 
every year in this country, until some doctors dis- 
covered how to control it, cost 40,000 lives. That 
number almost equals the loss of life on the bat- 
tlefield of all our wars since the foundation of 
our Republic, excluding those of the Civil War. 
Our industrial accidents each year amount to 
some 462,000, with a death list of 79,000. 

"You take little interest in correcting the 
causes and conditions which make such things 
possible, but talk a great deal about the destruc- 
tive nature of the Army, of which you know ex- 
tremely little. 

*'We have heard here to-night, from the 
speaker who preceded me, that international peace 
can best be secured by doing away with patriot- 
ism, and that there is no such thing as a national 
conscience. So far as America goes, I claim that 
there is such a thing as a national conscience, and 
a very strong and a very active one. . . . The 
best type of national conscience will only be found 
where the training of individuals has been broad 
and sound. The national conscience as a whole 
consists of the collective conscience of individ- 
uals; consequently it depends upon individual 
training and individual morals. International 

[255] 



LEONARD WOOD 

congresses can do very little if the training of 
the people has been unsound and they are want- 
ing in proper, moral principles. It is the educa- 
tion of the individual, after all, which counts and 
this education must begin in the home. If we 
have decent, moral boys and girls and sound 
teaching in the home we shall have good morals 
in public life; and we shall have a quiet, strong, 
God-fearing nation which, while not aggressive, 
will, I hope, always be proud of its flag and all 
that it stands for, willing to defend its interests 
when attacked, and, while seeking to avert war 
through justice and fair dealing, will neverthe- 
less be ready and willing to resist injustice and, 
accept war rather than peace-with-dishonor or 
peace which involves conditions worse than war. 

"When, in 1898, we took over our trust in 
Cuba, the conscience of the American people de- 
creed that we should not exploit that island, but 
that we should do all that we could to build up 
and better the people. For four years the work 
was entirely in the hands of the Army, acting as 
an agent of reconstruction. Although the form 
of government was one of military intervention, 
with the absolute power of life and death, the 
Army nevertheless never interfered with the Cu- 
ban Courts, but on the contrary supported and 
protected them; and the record for the prompt 
punishment of crime was better than in any state 
of the Union. 

"The death-rate in that Island was reduced by; 

[256] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

tHe Army from one of the largest in the world to 
one of the smallest. The wonderful results which 
grew out of the work and discoveries of Surgeon 
Walter Reed and his associates, who nobly and 
generously gave health and even life itself to the 
work, have been applied to the control of yellow 
fever in our own southern states, in Central 
America, and in northern South American coun- 
tries, as well as in Cuba and the islands of the 
West Indies, and have brought untold blessings 
to those lands through the doing away with their 
most terrible scourge. 

*'The tropics have been made a white man's 
country so far as this disease is concerned. The 
number of lives saved in the tropical lands every 
year are many times the number of those lost 
during the war, and the saving in our own coun- 
try has been very great, not only in life but in 
money, exceeding in all probability many times 
the cost of the war. Business men appreciate 
what the periodic quarantines against yellow fe- 
ver, extending from the mouth of the Rio 
Grande, along the Atlantic Coast sometimes al- 
most to the Potomac and away up the Mississippi 
above Memphis, cost the people of the South. All 
freight was tied up, all movement of individuals 
greatly curtailed and business practically par- 
alyzed. 

"In Porto Rico one of our young army medi- 
cal officers. Dr. Bailey K. Ash ford, interested 
himself in whai is known as tropical anaemia, or 

[257] 



LEONARD WOOD 

hookworm disease. He established the method 
of its control, established a systematic campaign 
against it throughout Porto Rico, and finally re- 
duced the death-rate from this disease alone in 
this little island of a million people by 1,400 per 
year. Here again is a great sanitary discovery 
growing out of the work of the Army; and, like 
the prevention of yellow fever, is a discovery 
which is of immense value to tropical and semi- 
tropical peoples. What we for a long time con- 
sidered as tropical laziness or shiftlessness is 
traceable very largely to the effects of this dis- 
ease, so that the discovery of its cause and the es- 
tablishment of a method of treatment and con- 
trol means the revitalizing of the people of these 
tropical countries, as well as of the people of a 
considerable portion of our own southern states. 
A recent estimate by planters in Porto Rico 
places the increased efficiency of their men, inci- 
dent to doing away with this disease, at 60 per 
cent. It is hard to estimate the economic value of 
a discovery of this kind, and it is still more diffi- 
cult to appreciate the far-reaching effect in the 
way of the saving of human life and adding to 
the measure of human contentment and happi- 
ness. 

"You are no doubt familiar with the recent 
assembling of troops on the Mexican border, and 
that at first a great deal of typhoid existed on 
the Mexican side of the river. This made it nec- 
essary to take up the systematic control of ty- 

[258] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

phoid through the use of a typhoid serum now 
used in the British Army. It was taken up by 
our medical officers with such success that last 
year, with something over 100,000 men scattered 
all over the world, there was not a death from 
typhoid in the Army. Contrast this with the con- 
ditions at Chickamauga, in 1898, when there 
were over 1,500 cases of typhoid in that one camp 
alone, with a huge death-rate. This discovery, 
made in the Army, is destined to be of inestimable 
benefit to all mankind. 

''Again, in the Philippines, our medical work 
incident to the occupation of those islands has 
done away with beri beri. This was not directly 
the work of the Army, but was accomplished by 
the medical officers connected with the Insular 
government, working under the direction of the 
Insular Bureau of the War Department. 

"Other great results have been accomplished 
in the control of malaria and the general better- 
ment of sanitary conditions. In fact, the whole 
work in these tropical possessions has tended to 
the betterment of conditions under which people 
live, both from the standpoint of government and 
the standpoint of sanitation. The improvements 
in sanitation have been more generally appre- 
ciated than in any other department of our work, 
and have undoubtedly resulted in building up 
bonds of lasting sympathy with the people who 
have come under our control, for they appreciate 

[259] 



LEONARD WOOD 

in their hearts the great work which has been 
done for them. 

"So, when you think of our Army and its work, 
do not think of it ahvays as an aggregation of 
fighting people, bent only on fighting, but remem- 
ber that it is one of the great constructive life- 
saving agencies of the Republic. Its work has 
been continuous from the earliest days. It was 
engaged for years in opening up the West, con- 
trolling the Indian situation, safeguarding the 
mail routes, keeping roads open, aiding in sur- 
veys. It was the advance guard of civilization 
and the protecting agent of people crossing the 
great 'unsettled section between the Pacific slope 
and the eastern frontiers. 

''In recent years the control of conditions re- 
sulting from Mississippi floods has been handled 
by the Army, handled so quietly and so effective- 
ly that few have ever heard that at times 200,000 
destitute people were being taken care of each 
day by the Army. This work was done quietly 
by young officers who were trained to be obedi- 
ent, to do things as told, to do them promptly and 
not to talk about them. 

"There is no more democratic element in this 
country than your Army and your Navy and 
this is as it should be; and no class stands abuse 
or misrepresentation with less resentment than 
the two sister services. We know you do not un- 
derstand us, our purpose or our work, because 
you constantly refer to the Army as a destruc- 

[260] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

tive element. You might as well say that your 
police force is a destructive element simply be- 
cause it is trained to do certain things with force 
if it has to. 

"Another idea you must get out of your heads 
is that soldiers and sailors are fond of fighting 
for its own sake. You might just as well say that 
the life-saving service down on the coast in win- 
ter is praying for gales of wind and rough work 
at sea simply because they are trained to it. The 
Army and Navy are willing to do cheerfully what 
the nation decrees in this line because they are 
the people to do it. Try to look at the construc- 
tive work the nation has done through its Army 
and Navy and remember that it is always subor- 
dinate to the will of the nation, that it is without 
unworthy ambition, that it hates militarism, that 
it is simply your agent. When you turn to the 
work of your country in its dealings with the 
tropical peoples who came under our control as a 
result of the war of 1898, remember that none of 
these countries has been exploited for our profit, 
that their people have received great benefit as 
the result of our control, and that they are liv- 
ing under far better conditions as to education, 
material comforts and health than ever before." 

Another point of interest in General Wood's 
career as a Military Administrator is the strict 
economy he has enforced, and the minute atten- 
tion which he has given to insure judicious expen-, 

[261] 



LEONARD WOOD 

diture of all the Government funds and property 
entrusted to his care. The supervision of dis- 
bursements, he never entirely delegates to subor- 
dinates, no matter how competent and trust- 
worthy they may be. 

This phase of his work is illustrated by the 
following extracts taken at random from his offi- 
cial reports while in the Philippines: 

He recommended "that articles of clothing, 
including shoes and other articles liable to be in- 
jured by moths, white ants, or tropical conditions, 
be packed in tin-lined cases. Attention is invited 
to the fact that this method is employed by com- 
mercial firms here, and if adopted by the Govern- 
ment would prevent much loss of stores that un- 
der the present method of packing is unavoidable. 
This recommendation has been repeatedly made 
by the undersigned. It is believed that the cost 
of packing in this manner would not exceed lO 
per cent, of the present loss due to inadequate 
protection against insects and moisture." 

"It is the policy in this department to limit the 
construction of nipa (thatch) buildings, and to 
have all future construction of a permanent char- 
acter. In this connection it is recommended that 
a much larger proportion of native lumber be sup- 
plied than at present, for, although the first cost 
may be somewhat higher than that of imported 
lumber, its greater durability and comparative 

[262] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

freedom from the attack of insects will in the end 
make its use more economical. 

''Moreover, when the cost of transportation 
and the expense of the numerous handlings of the 
lumber which is brought from the United States 
have been added to the original price, it is be- 
lieved that it is far more expensive than is at 
first sight apparent. As there is an almost inex- 
haustible amount of lumber in these Islands, it is 
held that the greatest possible use should be made 
of it, not only because it will in the end be more 
economical, but for the additional and very im- 
portant reason that it will help build up local 
industries." 

"The water transportation allowed this depart- 
ment has been reduced by giving up the char- 
tered transport Buluan, which cost the Govern- 
ment, including coal, in the neighborhood of 
$6,000 per month." 

Under General Wood's economical manage- 
ment the diminution in wastage and spoilage of 
army stores in the Philippines was so marked 
that at the end of 1906, his first year as Com- 
mander of the Philippines Division, he was able 
to report: 

"This year the value of the stores submitted 
for condemnation was only $6,483.94, a reduc- 
tion of $35,084.38 as compared with the preced- 
ing year." 

[263] 



LEONARD WOOD 

It would be a mistake to infer that, because 
General Wood gives personal attention and su- 
pervision to the details of the expenditure of 
Government moneys, he ever allows himself, from 
a false notion of economy, to lose sight of broader 
financial issues, or limits himself to those mat- 
ters for which he is directly and legally respon- 
sible. 

We continually find in his reports recommen- 
dations relating to general construction of an 
industrial character, such as the following: 

"Plans and estimates have already been sub- 
mitted and approved for the construction of a 
narrow-gauge railroad from Overton to Lake 
Lanao, at a cost of $320,000. Statements have 
also been submitted showing that the saving 
which will be made in the cost of maintenance of 
transportation, sufficient to meet present demands 
will, in a single year, be almost sufficient to 
pay for the construction and equipment of the 
road. . . . 

"The construction of the railroad is therefore 
strongly urged from every standpoint. . . . 

"The saving in the expense of transportation 
alone not only justifies but demands the construc- 
tion of this road, and aside from the military fea- 
tures of the case, the railroad will do much to 
help open up the interior of the country." 

This interest in the "interior of the country" 
is typical of his constant effort to make the 

[264] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

Army in all things the servant of the people 
among whom it is stationed, as will be indicated 
by the following characteristic statements in 
other parts in his Philippine reports : 

''Seeds of various grasses have, during the past 
year, been procured from the Agricultural De- 
partment of the United States for the purpose of 
making experiments, especially about Lake La- 
nao, to determine the feasibility of raising for- 
age. It is believed that alfalfa and other grasses 
will do well in certain portions of these islands. 
It is recommended that experiments on a large 
scale be authorized in order that steps may be 
taken to furnish forage for transportation ani- 
mals, and for cavalry and artillery horses. It 
seems poor policy to transport hay from the cen- 
tral portion of the United States to a country 
where vegetation is as luxuriant as it is in the 
Philippines, and where it is certain that nutritious 
and entirely satisfactory grasses for animals can 
be grown. 

"It is believed that as soon as the adaptability 
of various grasses has been established, the in- 
habitants of the islands will be able to produce 
fodder equal to the demands of the market. Such 
a procedure would not only very greatly reduce 
the cost of the maintenance of mounted troops 
in these islands, but would add very materially 
to the income and prosperity of the inhabitants." 

[265] 



LEONARD WOOD 

*ln the department of the Visayas there has 
been a general condition of good order except in 
the Island of Samar, a large portion of which has 
been kept in a condition of disorder as a result 
of the operations of a large number of ignorant 
fanatics of a low type, known as pulajanes. . . . 

''The pulajanes are a combination of ignorance 
and fanaticism. They obey implicitly the orders 
of their popes and other leaders, religious or po- 
litical. Covered with anting-antings and other 
equally worthless charms they believe themselves 
to be invisible and invulnerable. . . . They illus- 
trate the undeveloped condition of the great mass 
of the people and the readiness with which these 
naturally peaceful people are led to extremities by 
false leaders. These disturbances, as military 
matters, are of little significance, but they are 
very injurious to the welfare of the Island in 
that they disturb the economic life of the people 
and thereby prevent the investment of capital and 
the extension of industry." 

While Commander of the Philippines Division, 
General Wood took a leading part in organizing 
the annual Carnival at Manila on a new basis. 
He dignified it into ^ national fete which has 
since become known across the world, and in 
which the Americans and Filipinos jointly par- 
ticipate; he used it successfully as a means of 
drawing together the two races. 

[266] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

As a military administrator General Wood 
long ago appreciated the necessity of improving 
the standard of the regular army officer, and 
clearly foresaw the weaknesses which only be- 
came generally apparent a decade later when we 
entered into the World War. As far back as 
1906 he wrote: 

"In the line and staff there are a considerable 
number of officers who entered the service as a 
result of the war with Spain, and . . . who, now 
that a condition of peace is established, are found 
to be of a type which is not desirable to continue 
in the regular service. . . . 

**The class of officers referred to is made up 
of the men who find the hard and serious work 
of an officer's career different from what they 
had expected. This, combined with the lack of 
excitement, has rendered them indifferent to im- 
provement and in some instances to the discharge 
of duty. 

"It is difficult to eliminate this class by the 
means now afforded, as many of them, while far 
from keen, consider the position of an officer a 
sufficiently good one to hold on to as a means of 
livelihood. . . . Under present conditions it re- 
quires a most serious breach of discipline or of 
law effectually to retard or prevent promotion. 
As long as this condition exists, we must expect 
that lazy and indifferent officers will take advan- 
tage of it. It is most desirable to get rid of these. 

"Moreover, a krge percentage of the field offi- 

[267] 



LEONARD WOOD 

cers are too old for their positions. They have 
reached field rank only in the latter stages of 
their career. Many of them fully realize what is 
apparent to others, that their condition is not 
such as to enable them ... to perform their full 
duty in the field or even in the office. Elimina- 
tion among such officers, provided it can be made 
in such a manner as to do them no injustice, 
would be to the material benefit of the service. 
. . . Troops are energetic and efficient in accord- 
ance with the energy and efficiency of the officer 
who commands them, and his energy and effi- 
ciency depend very much upon his physical fit- 
ness. 

*'It is desirable to promote deserving colonels 
... to general officers, but if the officer has less 
than five years to serve it is believed that he 
should be promoted and then retired. 

"A policy which tends to keep the list of gen- 
eral officers filled with men who have only a year 
or two of active service ahead of them, will take 
the initiative and energy out of the best army 
ever created. Either promote to high command 
for a reasonable time or use such promotion as a 
reward for service and retire the recipient, but do 
not fill the positions of high command with men 
who can not, on account of age and infirmity, hold 
the position to the advantage of the country in 
time of war, or whose time of service is so short 
as to cripple their initiative. . . . 

''With our small Army there is no excuse for 
[268] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

carrying a heavy load of inferior personnel. The 
military profession, like every other profession, 
has among its members many men who are in it 
simply for a living, men who have drifted into 
it, or been induced to enter it through the am- 
bition of parents to have their sons in the mili- 
tary service, men who have almost no soldierly 
qualities. It would be as idle to suppose that all 
officers are keen, intelligent men, well up in their 
profession and devoted to it, as to suppose that all 
lawyers, doctors, or other professional men are 
conspicuous for these qualities. 

"It is also futile to expect that every officer 
who is able to pass the entrance examination to 
the Army, whether he be from West Point, from 
civil life or from the ranks, will possess those 
qualities which make a good soldier or entitle 
him to high command. 

". . . Some searching system of elimination 
is necessary to get rid of those who are indiffer- 
ent or worthless, either through lack of aptitude 
or through physical or mental infirmity ; and also 
some system by which those who possess special 
qualifications which in the competition of civil 
life would take them over the heads of their fel- 
lows, shall have their abilities taken into consid- 
eration and given weight in the question of pro- 
motion. 

". . . There are many men who are able to 
pass into the service but who develop very little 
after entering it, and whose capacity in civil life 

[269] 



LEONARD WOOD 

would never have taken them above the lower 
grades of any profession. In the Army . . . 
they are at present eligible for appointment to 
positions of a relative importance far beyond that 
which they would attain under a system based 
upon comparative merit. 

"It is therefore believed that not only should 
we have a system of elimination, but that at least 
a percentage, say two in five, of all promotions 
should be by selection. By this means alone we 
can advance over others those who by virtue of 
their qualifications and ability are entitled to 
such advance. I believe that Army boards can 
safely be trusted to make such recommendations; 
and even granting that there may be isolated 
cases of injustice, such cases will in no way com- 
pare with the great injustice which is now im- 
posed upon the Army, and upon the really able 
and efficient officers who are compelled to mark 
time for a generation behind those who are gen- 
erally known to be of very limited capacity." 

Although General Wood repeatedly made rec- 
ommendations of this sort, and although for ten 
years he pressed them to the best of his ability, 
he was unable to overcome the personal inertia 
and the caste-feeling of the old-line officers. 
As a result the regular army faced the World 
War with the quality of its commissioned per- 
sonnel far below what the country had a right to 
expect. 

[270] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

General Wood also earnestly advocated giv- 
ing American officers opportunities to travel, 
that they might thereby acquire the languages of 
foreign countries and study the tactics of their 
armies. Admiral Dewey's success at the naval bat- 
tle of Manila was in no small degree founded 
upon his first-hand knowledge of the racial char- 
acteristics and temperament, not only of the 
Spaniards against whom he was fighting, but 
also of the British and Germans who were pres- 
ent with their fleets, and with whom he had to 
deal. 

In 1905, while in the Philippines, General 
Wood made the following recommendation to the 
War Department: 

"Much valuable information could be gathered 
by our officers if they were permitted to see more 
of the armies of other countries. So far as offi- 
cers serving in these Islands are concerned, this 
could be effected at small expense by authorizing 
five officers of each regiment serving in the 
Philippines to be selected by the colonel upon the 
relief of the regiment from duty and ordered to 
proceed to the United States via the Far East and 
Europe. They should be given four months for 
the journey and should be called upon for a re- 
port on some designated subject. The mileage 
allowed would almost pay expenses of the trip, 
and the value to the service incident to such jour- 
neys would be very great. The officers selected 
would see what Eastern and European armies 

[271] 



LEONARD WOOD 

are doing; their mental horizon would be en- 
larged, and their military value greatly increased. 
The selection of officers should be based upon 
their record for efficiency. 

^'Leaves for purpose of military investigation 
and study of foreign military systems and lan- 
guages should also be encouraged. 

''Systematic efforts should now be made to 
have a number of our officers acquire a knowl- 
edge of Japanese and Chinese. We are at pres- 
ent entirely in the hands of interpreters in all 
matters where these languages are concerned. 

''Most European governments, especially Eng- 
land, encourage their officers to acquire a knowl- 
edge of foreign languages and deal with them 
very liberally in the way of leaves for this pur- 
pose, the officers, after the proper period of 
study, being recjuired to pass an examination in 
the language selected." 

Nearly ten years later, while Commanding the 
department of the East, he was still emphasizing 
the same necessity; his report in 191 5 contains 
the following: 

"Attention has repeatedly been invited to the 
value of travel in foreign countries, especially to 
officers of command rank, for the purpose of 
military observation and study. The recommen- 
dations of previous years in this connection are 
renewed and urged. As large a number of offi- 
cers as possible, especially those of the higher 

[272] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

grades, should attend the maneuvers of the 
larger European armies each year. . . ." 

The good Military Administrator is ''he who 
takes care of his men" (conversation between 
Socrates and Xenophon). While the thought is 
an old one, it has been applied by General Wood 
in many new ways. 

In the Philippines he instituted a new yearly 
schedule, calculated to increase the health and 
contentment of his troops. He devoted the rainy 
season to training in garrison, and the dry season 
to maneuvers in the field. Moreover, he added 
general education to the curriculum of the train- 
ing season, and athletics to the order of business 
of the dry season. 

It was he who first officially introduced or- 
ganized athletics on a large scale into the Amer- 
ican Army. He encouraged competitive effi- 
ciency in military afifairs, and a wholesome inter- 
est in athletic prowess and feats of horseman- 
ship. 

His quartermaster's department was instructed 
to keep always on hand the essential articles of 
athletic supplies, such as horizontal bars, base- 
balls, hammers and shot, footballs, etc., for sale 
to company and post exchanges. 

Athletic work became a regular feature of the 
soldier's life. Wood organized an annual com- 
petitive military and athletic meet at which all 

[2731 



LEONARD WOOD 

units were represented, and which became for the 
soldiers the gala event of the year. 

Field days were held at each post, in every de- 
partment, on the second Friday of the month. 
Each department held an annual meet, the win- 
ners being sent to the Philippine Championship 
Meet at Manila, to which also went the best bat- 
teries, wagon trains and supply trains ; each regi- 
mental commander sent his best company. 

Military tournaments were combined with the 
athletic meets, and the soldiers, in consequence, 
took an added interest in their profession. There 
were contests between Batteries of Field Artil- 
lery to see which could most quickly take to 
pieces a mountain gun, pack it on mule-back, ad- 
vance 50 yards at a gallop, halt, unpack the gun, 
reassemble it, load, and fire a shot. One year the 
contest was won by the Seventeenth Battery in 
the remarkable time of forty-five and one-fifth 
seconds. Another Battery was only a fraction of 
a second behind. 

There has recently been mucK agitation for the 
reform of our system of courts martial, but the 
injustices involved were many years ago fully 
appreciated by General Wood, and he did every- 
thing in his power to mitigate them. When 
Commander of the Eastern Department in 1909, 
he recommended that: 

"The present system of handling military con- 
victs should be changed and a procedure inaugn- 

[274] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

rated looking to reform as well as punishment, in 
which it will be possible for prisoners by good 
conduct to obtain a standing which will entitle 
them to reenlistment in the Army on the ap- 
proval of the Secretary of War. Many men are 
dishonorably discharged on five previous convic- 
tions, all of them for minor offenses; they are 
not, in the usual sense of the term, convicts. The 
designation convict should be limited to those 
who have been found guilty of serious offenses. 
Many of the men now held as military con- 
victs would, with opportunity, demonstrate their 
fitness for another chance. It should be possible 
for them to earn it. . . .'* 

He took particular interest in the status of 
men court-martialed for desertion in time of 
peace. In 191 1, as Chief of Staff, he was able 
to report as follows: 

"Careful consideration is being given to the 
adoption of a system of handling men charged 
with the offense of desertion. Punishment, 
while an essential part of the treatment of de- 
serters, should not be the principal object, but 
rather correction and reform, * * * 

"The really serious question is what to do with 
the deserter when he has been captured, or, as is 
often the case, has given himself up. 

"Prisoners guilty of purely military offenses 
should be separated from and dealt with entirely 
differently than those charged with statutory or 
common-law crimes and offenses. 



LEONARD WOOD 

"It is believed that under a better system of 
handling- the deserter, a very large proportion of 
the men now lost to the service and sent back to 
civil life branded as convicts could be saved and 
made valuable members of the community. Un- 
der present conditions a man found guilty of de- 
sertion has no chance to redeem himself, and to 
earn by good conduct a chance to serve honorably 
as a soldier. No matter how much he may 
desire to clear his name he can not do so. 

"Most of the offenders are mere boys. The 
practical effect of our present military prison sys- 
tem and the legislation governing it, is to crush 
out of these young men all hope of atoning for 
an offense the gravity of which most of them 
failed to appreciate, to brand them as convicts 
and to deprive them of citizenship and hope for 
the future. 

"I therefore believe the present method of 
handling these young men to be fundamentally 
wrong, contrary to modern penology and to the 
application of just and humane principles, and 
that it is doing infinite harm to those brought 
under its influence. 

"These young men enter the Army at an age 
when their characters are largely unformed and 
leave the service as they would leave any other 
job they are tired of, little understanding the 
gravity of this offense. Many of them can be re- 
formed. This should be our purpose in all cases. 
We must give these young men one chance to 

[276] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

make good and to earn, by good conduct, an hon- 
orable discharge. We do not do it under the 
present system." 

As a Military Administrator it was always 
General Wood's effort so to conduct his com- 
mand that every enHsted man in it gained per- 
manent advantage from his service. To quote 
General Wood's own words, the ex-soldier 
should be sent "back to civil life a more valuable 
industrial factor because of better physique, 
improved mental and physical discipline, and a 
greater respect for the flag, for law and order, 
and for his superiors." 

He is always looking for a chance to make 
them more useful and more successful as citi- 
zens. He also endeavors to improve their civil- 
ian education, whenever it can be accomplished 
without jeopardizing military efficiency. 

When the armistice was signed on November 
nth, 1918, our troops could not at once be re- 
turned to civil life, but with the end of the fight- 
ing the militant spirit of civilian America in arms 
fell away. 

Nevertheless many of the units abroad were 
kept marching or standing about in the rain at 
"maneuvers," for months after the armistice, by 
officers who could not seem to get it through their 
heads that the war was over. General Wood, 
however, without delay converted his division 

12771 



LEONARD WOOD 

into a university, and began to prepare his men 
for the problems of peace time. 

He arranged to have the University of Kansas 
take 400 of his men into its laboratories. Lec- 
turers came from the Agricultural College to 
give courses to the farmers among his soldiers. 
Other professors taught Economics and Ameri- 
can History in terms which could be understood 
by even the most recently Americanized dough- 
boy of foreign birth. 

General Wood sensed intuitively and instant- 
ly the ''next thing," as he has always done. 
Just as he initiated the epochal Plattsburg move- 
ment, while all others in authority were still cry- 
ing about being too proud to fight, and about 
a million men springing to arms between sunrise 
and sunset; so now at the end of the war, while 
others in military authority were maneuver- 
ing and drilling and inspecting, Leonard Wood 
was teaching Americanism on the basis of the 
Constitution of the United States. He was urging 
preparedness for peace just as ardently as he 
had pushed preparedness for war four years be- 
fore. He was leading the men under his charge 
to the inevitable conclusion that the internation- 
alism of Bolshevist Soviets was impractical and 
vicious. 

From Camp Funston, he was assigned to com- 
mand the Central Department, with Head- 
quarters at Chicago. He arrived there on March 

[278] 



THE MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 

20th, to find that ex-soldiers and ex-sailors were 
having difficulty in obtaining employment and in 
otherwise readjusting themselves to life on a 
peace basis. Various civilian relief societies 
were at work, but they frequently conflicted with 
one another, and the results obtained were not 
100% efficient. 

General Wood met the situation immediately; 
within ten days a Central Bureau for reemploy- 
ment was in full operation at 120 West Adams 
Street, coordinating the work of the various 
welfare societies of the city in their efforts to 
meet the thousand and one needs of the ex- 
service men. 

The Red Cross took charge of transportation, 
the Jewish Welfare Board of vocational training 
and apprenticeships, the Salvation Army of 
clothing, the Y.M.C.A. of lodgings and food sup- 
ply, the Fort Sheridan Association devoted itself 
to obtaining positions for professional men, the 
Chicago Women's Clubs ran a rest room, the 
Chicago Legal Aid Society gave free legal ad- 
vice, and the War Camps Community Service 
ran information booths. 

The main bureau itself took charge of the re- 
employment situation. Its records show that in 
six months 43,345 ex-service men registered 
there. Of that number 32,259 asked assistance 
in obtaining employment, and more than 30,400 
found places through the instrumentality of the 
bureau. 

[279] 



LEONARD WOOD 

And finally, two of the most recent achieve- 
ments of Leonard Wood's career as a military 
administrator have been the restoration of order 
after the riots in Omaha, where law-respecting 
and law-abiding citizens were trampled under 
foot by a mob ; and afterward at the steel strikes 
at Gary, where, although he maintained public 
order and although the property of the mills was 
protected, the strikers said that Leonard Wood 
was the only man who ever gave them their full 
rights under the Constitution. 



[280] 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM! 

Leonard Wood's past life divides itself into 
three periods of activity — his eighteen years of 
practice as a Surgeon; his brief but brilliant ca- 
reer as a combat soldier; and his successful work 
as an Administrator which extended from the 
autumn of 1898 when he became Governor of 
Santiago, until the spring of 1914 when he 
ceased to be Chief of Staff of the United States 
army. 

At the present moment it is not any one of 
these three phases of his life that have been 
terminated which interests us most. Much more 
vital to his countrymen is the fourth and most 
important period in his career, which has not 
yet reached its zenith — that is his leadership as 
an unflinching defender of Republicanism against 
the assaults of Autocracy on one side and Com- 
munism on the other; as the principal upholder 
and prophet of Americanism against the two ex- 
tremes of Prussianism and Bolshevism, and as 
the staunch advocate of Patriotism against In- 
ternationalism. 

[281] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Our people did not begin to appreciate the value 
of Leonard Wood's leadership in the cause of 
Americanism until about 1913; nevertheless, it 
became a vital influence much earlier. 

His distrust of Germany and his antagonism 
to the Prussian system began as far back as 
1902, at which time he attended the Imperial 
German Army maneuvers as special representa- 
tive of the United States. There his keen mind 
received its first warning of the trend of events 
which finally culminated in the World War. 

Nearly every one now realizes that the Kaiser 
and his military clique had for decades been plan- 
ning and preparing a general war, which taking 
the family of nations by surprise, should con- 
quer the world, and be the logical sequence to 
Germany's ruthless conquests of 1866, 1867 and 
1870. By such a war the Kaiser hoped to extend 
Prussian ideals and influence over all nations of 
political or industrial importance. 

In the light of after events, it seems incredible 
that the countries threatened should have been so 
blind to the ultimate purpose of Germany's 
colossal military preparations. 

The Kaiser, realizing the futility of any at- 
tempt to conceal his country's great military ex- 
pansion, expended himself in a shrewd effort to 
camouflage its ultimate purpose. To achieve this 
end, he exhibited his army at every opportunity, 
and loudly boasted of its might to the very peo- 
ple against whom it was ultimately to be let loose. 

[282] 



THE CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 

He successfully applied, on a larger scale, the 
psychological principle, so cleverly illustrated in 
one of Edgar Allan Poe's detective stories, where 
a man skillfully conceals a valuable document 
from the police, who are searching for it, by 
hanging it in plain sight on the wall. 

The Kaiser proclaimed that all these gigantic 
preparations were intended merely as a protection 
for his ''peace-loving Vaterland" against possible 
attacks from France, and we believed him despite 
the fact that republican France had only one-half 
the population of Imperial Germany. 

Each year Wilhelm II invited the rulers and 
leaders of Russia and Great Britain to witness 
the maneuvers of his armies. At such times, he 
devoted himself to the entertainment and con- 
quest of his distinguished guests, whose suspi- 
cions he disarmed by the most flattering personal 
attentions, and by repeated assertions of inter- 
national friendship and pacific intentions. 

So successful was his stratagem, that he com- 
pletely blinded the vast majority of the Slavic 
and Anglo-Saxon peoples and neutralized any 
considerable attempt at preparedness on the part 
of the nations threatened; among all their 
royal personages and military leaders who en- 
joyed the Kaiser's lavish hospitality and were 
recipients of his flattering attention, there were 
only two whose perceptions were not befogged, 
but who saw clearly through the curtain of sub- 
'terfuge back to the naked truth behind. Among 

[283] 



LEONARD WOOD 

the dignitaries who attended the German maneu- 
vers in 1902 were Field Marshal Earl Roberts, 
fresh from his military and administrative tri- 
umphs in South Africa; and INIajor-General 
Leonard Wood, just back from like successes in 
Cuba. The records of their public services were 
strikingly similar. Before meeting, each had 
felt admiration for the work of the other; and 
after meeting, they found themselves kindred 
spirits.* 

As they stood together on the plains of 
Prussia, watching the seemingly endless hosts of 
German soldiers, they first cautiously sounded 
one another as to the inference each drew from 
the pageant, but presently came to a reciprocal 
confidence and complete mutual understanding. 

It developed that one conclusion was common 
to them both: that this mighty army was never 
collected, trained and maintained for France 
alone, but that world conquest was its ultimate 
aim, in the path of which stood both Great Brit- 
ain and the United States. 

The Prussian Junkers looked upon these two 
"Englander" with only half concealed contempt, 
believing all Americans and Britons to be stupid 
and thick-headed where Weltpolitik was con- 
cerned. 

♦Captain Halstead Dorey (now Colonel Dorey, D. S. C, 
D. S. M., Ofificer of the Legion d'Honneur, Croix de Guerre) 
was General Wood's aide in 1902 at the German Maneuvers, 
and gave the author the details of the relationship between 
Wood and Roberts. 

[284] 



THE CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 

The Kaiser was not astute enough to realize 
that these two silent men, with analytical minds 
and unflatterable temperaments, were penetrat- 
ing to the very heart of his schemes and discus- 
sing the means to circumvent them, as day after 
day throughout the autumn weeks they watched 
the *Svar play" of his numerous army corps. 

Their very taciturnity seemed to the voluble 
Emperor a mark of dullness. Their reserve 
would have been a warning to a less self-ab- 
sorbed mortal, but the Kaiser, deceived by his 
egotism, believed he was producing upon them 
the impression he desired. Even when General 
Wood refused the order of the Black Eagle, 
highest and most prized of Prussian decorations, 
the Emperor failed to take the warning which 
would have been plain to any man less blinded by 
self-conceit; especially when Wood accepted the 
decoration of Grand Officer of the Legion of 
Honor from Republican France. 

Day after day, Roberts and Wood watched the 
mighty hosts of the German War Lord rehears- 
ing the attack upon the world which was being 
tested and re-tested until ''the day" when it 
should finally be pronounced invincible and irre- 
sistible. 

They noted that each German division was as 
responsive to the control of its commanding gen- 
eral as a well trained horse to the hand of its 
master. Each button on the tunic of every Ger- 
man private was speckless. 

[285] 



LEONARD WOOD 

The two farsighted Anglo-Saxon leaders 
gradually perceived that a race for supremacy 
had been started, not merely between the Anglo- 
Saxons and Teutons, but a more farreaching 
struggle between the two antagonistical systems 
of Republicanism and Prussianism. 

These first impressions were later further con- 
firmed by visits to subsequent Imperial German 
annual maneuvers. 

Roberts and Wood found themselves in com- 
plete accord as to the danger which threatened 
their nations, and were agreed as to the neces- 
sary measures to meet it. 

With both of them, to see a duty was to under- 
take it. Each returned to his own country to 
begin the long and seemingly hopeless struggle 
to make his people realize the oncoming menace 
of Germany's military expansion and growing 
ambition. 

The whole world knows how their warnings 
were met with public indifference or ridicule, 
how they also encountered repeated official re- 
buffs. Nevertheless, steadfastly and unfalter- 
ingly, they not only sounded the note of warn- 
ing, but also used every means in their power to 
remedy defects in their country's defenses. 

In the end they were responsible for the sav- 
ing of the Republicanism they loved, for al- 
though they were not able to achieve any ade- 
quate military preparedness in either Great Brit- 
ain or the United States before the conflict be- 

[286] 



THE CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 

gan, they nevertheless did so prepare the public 
mind for universal military service, that when 
the dire emergency finally came, both nations 
accepted it without fatal delay. 

Many people have criticized Leonard Wood 
for appealing directly to the American people in 
his campaign for preparedness and American- 
ism, and maintained that he ought to have con- 
fined himself to formal recommendations made 
exclusively through official channels to the War 
Department. 

It is, however, important to note the fact that 
for ten years after his first historic interview 
with Earl Roberts, he did actually adhere strictly 
to official channels, and made his recommenda- 
tions only through reports to the War Depart- 
ment, where they were invariably pigeon-holed. 

Throughout the decade from 1902 to 191 1 his 
clear vision revealed to him the extreme serious- 
ness of our situation; in proof of which, his rec- 
ommendations quoted in the previous chapter, 
although they are only fragmentary selections 
from his repeated appeals for action, yet give 
ample evidence of the invariable accuracy of his 
predictions. 

In the light of after events, the absolute cer- 
tainty with which he anticipated the future re- 
quirements of our Army, even to the smallest 
and least important detail, is little short of mirac- 
ulous. 

For instance, in 19 17 the United States Arm^ 

[287] 



LEONARD WOOD 

was at last reluctantly forced to admit the vital 
importance of the bayonet and hand grenade in 
modern warfare. Up to that time, it had stub- 
bornly refused to consider the development of 
the bayonet and the adoption of the grenade, yet 
as early as 1905 Wood had begun to advocate the 
use of these weapons. At that date, while still 
in the Philippines, he made the following recom- 
mendation to the War Department: 

"A suitable ^type of hand grenade should be 
developed and made available for use when re- 
quired. Hand grenades have been frequently 
much needed in service against Moros, and recent 
experience shows that they will play an important 
part in future wars. Thus far it has been im- 
possible to secure from the Ordnance Depart- 
ment a suitable hand grenade. However, efforts 
are being made to secure samples of those used 
in the recent Russo-Japanese war. . . . 

"The present bayonet training is of little value 
except as a physical exercise. The men know 
very little of the possibilities of the weapon, and 
never will until they are given the material to 
practice with, and are put through a course of 
instruction by competent instructors. Each com- 
pany of infantry should have at least six com- 
plete sets of fencing equipment for this instruc- 
tion." 

During the author's service in France, in 1917 
and 1918, he learned to appreciate the great 
value of the 12-gauge repeating shot-gun, loaded 

[288] 




THE KAISER LEONARD WOOD 



EARL ROBERTS 



AT THE GESMAN MANEUVRES OF 1902 

288] 




"Xot too proud to fight!" 
AT PLATTSBURG 




Watching the Plattsburgers at drill 




Genei il \\<>.,il !.(__ m tiu t),iiniiiy of liis mounted troops in spite of the lack of hor 




Typical reserve ofificers in field uniform 
AT CAMP FUNSTON 





AT THE TI.AIE OF THE BOSTON POLICE 
STRIKE 



[289 



THE CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 

with buckshot, for use in close action in raids or 
in holding outposts. This gun, although simply 
invaluable, was only issued late in the war, after 
repeated demands for it had been made upon the 
Ordnance Department. And even then, we 
could never obtain them in anything like suffi- 
cient quantities. We seldom had more than two 
guns for an infantry battalion, when at least a 
score would have been useful. 

When we did secure them, they were rendered 
extremely unreliable because only paper ammu- 
nition was furnished, which, under service condi- 
tions, in the rain and mud of France, frequently 
became wet; it then swelled and refused to func- 
tion smoothly through the mechanism of the gun, 
which frequently jammed at the most critical 
moments. 

After my return from the A. E. F., I was 
astonished, while reading General Wood's re- 
ports as Commander of the Philippine Division, 
written in . 1906, to come across the following 
passage : 

*Tt is recommended that each company be fur- 
nished with four i2-gauge repeating shotguns, 
with a reasonable supply of buckshot cartridges 
with metallic shells. These metallic shells now 
issued to the constabulary, in this department, 
are of excellent type, made of cheap composition 
and cost little more than paper shells. The paper 
cartridge is unsafe, as, in a damp climate, it is 

[289], 



LEONARD WOOD 

liable to swell and stick and throw the gun out of 
action at a critical moment. 

"The repeating shotgun, loaded with buckshot, 
is most valuable for outpost duty, and for ad- 
vance guard in a brushy country. Soldiers are 
constantly rushed, with little or no warning, and 
the enemy is on them at a very short range, and 
what is needed is something to stop them in- 
stantly. For this purpose there is no weapon in 
our possession equal to the shotgun loaded with 
buckshot. . . ." 

General Wood's first radical departure from 
routine methods of gaining a hearing occurred 
in 191 1 when he was Chief of Staff. He then 
actively opposed certain military legislation, pro- 
posed by Congressman Hay of Virginia, and 
eventually caused its defeat. This proposed law 
was not only unsound but was clearly contrary 
to the interests of the country. 

In an effort to punish Wood for his activity, a 
bill was immediately concocted by Hay and intro- 
duced in Congress under the guise of general 
military legislation. This bill was framed with 
the intention of removing Wood from office. It 
provided that any officer who had not served ten 
years as an officer of the line was to be debarred 
from holding the position of Chief of Staff. At 
the time the bill was drawn, it could affect no gen- 
eral officers of the army except Generals Wood 
and Funston, neither of whom were West Point- 

[290] 



THE CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 

ers, and neither exclusively regular army officers, 
either in spirit or training. 

Senator Root, in opposing the bill, remarked 
that: 'The provision could not better accomplish 
its purpose if it read that no man whose initials 
are L. W. shall be Chief of Staff." 

Four years later, in 191 5, under a Democratic 
Administration, after Wood had been relieved 
as Chief of Staff and was therefore no longer in 
a position to checkmate his scheme, Hay suc- 
ceeded in having his measures passed by a Dem- 
ocratic Congress, and his bill was responsible, 
more than any other legislative factor, for Amer- 
ica's unpreparedness in the great war. 

In the light of after events, it is interesting to 
note that it was a Democratic politician who 
first dislodged Wood from the groove of ortho- 
dox official reports and forced him — realizing his 
country's danger — to adopt the method of direct 
appeal to the American public. 

From that time he became increasingly prom- 
inent as an advocate of adequate preparedness, 
and a defender of the ideals of Americanism. 

"There are many things man cannot buy," he 
said, *'and one of them is Time. It takes time 
to organize and prepare. Time will be found 
only in periods of peace. Modern war gives 
no time for preparation. Its approach is 
that of the avalanche and not that of the glacier. 
God has given us eyes to see, ears to hear, and 
intelligence and memory to gather and to hold 

[291] 



LEONARD WOOD 

something of the lessons of the past. If we fail 
to make use of these means of protection which 
have, been given us, and simply say that because 
certain things are disagreeable they are to be dis- 
regarded, if we make no adequate preparation 
and neglect the evidence of our senses, we can 
expect help neither from God nor man and the 
fault will be our own." ' 

It was characteristic of his energy, as well as 
of his devotion to his Country, that he was not 
content to let the matter rest with a sing-le state- 
ment, — a sort of verbal alibi. He continued his 
attack, and his epigrams upon preparedness be- 
came famous from coast to coast; he used to 
say: *'The captain of a ship, when he puts out 
to sea, does not prepare his life boats to over- 
come the power of any particular storm but 
makes ready for any emergency which may 
arise." 

Once his fighting blood was up, it was inevit- 
able that before long he should add action to 
epigram, and his best-known activity took the 
form of the 'Tlattsburg Movement." The first 
two officers' training camps were initiated by him 
in the summer of 1913, while he was still Chief 
of Staff of the U. S. Army, — he ceased to be 
Chief of StafT early in 1914. One of these camps 
was located at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the 
other at Monterey, California. Their student 
personnel was largely drawn from the universi- 

[292] 



THE CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 

ties, because Wood realized what splendid officer 
material they contained. In the first year only 
222 attended the two camps, but they represented 
twenty-seven universities. 

General Wood explained their inauguration in 
the following words: — "The ultimate object is 
not in any way military aggrandizement, but to 
provide in some degree a means of meeting a 
vital need confronting us as a peaceful and un- 
military people, in order to preserve the desired 
peace and prosperity through the only safe 
precaution; more thorough preparation and 
equipment to resist any effort to break '^uch 
peace." 

In 191 5, he initiated a corresponding move- 
ment among young business and professional 
men, and the attendance at two camps held at 
Plattsburg, in July and August of that year, to- 
taled about eighteen hundred, coming from every 
state in the union. These men made up the fa- 
mous First Plattsburg Regiment, a band of cru- 
saders which included in its ranks such men as 
Robert Bacon the Senior and his sons; Richard 
Harding Davis, George Wharton Pepper, Gren- 
ville Clark, William Cooper Procter, John Pur- 
roy Mitchel, Frederick Huidekoper, John Mac- 
Vicar, Percy Haughton, Elihu Root, Jr., D wight 
Davis, Henry Hooker, William Marshall Bullitt,. 
Charles Whittlessey, George Edward Buxton, 
Redmond Stewart, Arthur Woods, Charles E. 
Hughes, Jr., Tomkins Mcllvaine, Benjamen 

[293] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Dibblee, George Vincent, Frederick Alger, Dud- 
ley Field Malone, and the four sons of Theodore 
Roosevelt. 

History will devote no little attention to the 
rise and growth of the citizens' military prepar- 
edness movement in America from 1913-1917. 
It is unique. Nothing of the sort has ever be- 
fore been known in any country. Discouraged 
and tacitly disapproved by the administration in 
power, this movement was founded by the far- 
sightedness of one man, and developed by his 
inspiring genius to redeem his Country. 

He was not only the true prophet of American- 
ism, but in addition to his prophetic foresight he 
also possessed qualities of administrative genius 
which enabled him to win the necessary action 
from a country whose government and the ma- 
jority of whose people were at first totally blind 
to the truths so clearly revealed by him. He was 
in truth not merely ''the speaker but the doer of 
the word." 

The men whom Leonard Wood attracted from 
the universities and from business and profes- 
sional life were a carefully selected lot, the high- 
est type of loyal American citizens. Hundreds 
of them were persuaded to attend the camps by 
Wood's own personal influence, expressed in pri- 
vate conference or in public speech. 

He intended them as a leaven which, after 
their return to their universities and home cities, 
should stir the great mass of their fellow-citizens 

[294] 



THE CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 

to action. In order to accomplish this effectively, ' 
it was vital that these pioneers should be ac- 
knowledged and respected as leaders in their own 
communities. 

Thus, for example, only fourteen men went 
from the entire Pittsburgh district to the First 
Training Regiment in 191 5, but they included 
such leaders among the younger generation as 
David A. Reed, Alexander Laughlin, Jr., 
Harry Rapelye, Churchill Mehard, Charles 
McKnight, Jr., Charles du Puy, Grant Curry, 
John Ricketson, and two sons of Senator William. 

Flynn. 

These men were so inspired and impressed by 
what they saw and learned at Plattsburg during 
their month under General Wood, that they went 
back to their home district, apostles of American- 
ism, and as a result they brought back with them 
to Plattsburg the next year no less than six hun- 
dred and twenty-five converts. 

This larger number, between the summer of 
1916 and the spring of 1917, so extended their 
influence and so molded public opinion, that when 
the war finally came in April, 1917, the Pitts- 
burgh district was spiritually prepared to meet it 
and heartily to endorse the draft act. 

What happened in Pittsburgh is typical, and 
took place in cities and towns throughout the 
whole country, and in all the universities, for the 
ideals and aims of this one patriot were, through 

[295] 



LEONARD WOOD 

the agency he created, transferred to a whole 
nation. 

Thus the people of America, led by Wood, 
engaged voluntarily and, in many individual 
cases, at great personal sacrifice in a non-political 
and essentially unofficial movement for a return 
to national self-respect and courageous Amer- 
icanism. When the crisis finally arrived, they 
provided the country with fifty thousand par- 
tially trained officers, in addition to her three 
thousand regulars, and built up a sufficiently 
strong sentiment for universal service to make 
possible its enaction into law immediately after 
the declaration of war. 

Those of us who attended Plattsburg in 191 5 
and 19 1 6, heard General Wood speak as follows 
in addresses to the students: 

'Tf we are drawn into the World War we shall 
have to raise, at the very minimum, an army of 
one million men. Such an army will require in 
the neighborhood of six thousand field officers, 
and about fifty thousand company officers, — cap- 
tains and lieutenants. The entire number of reg- 
ular commissioned officers at present available 
amounts to only about three thousand, which 
means that even if every officer down to the 
youngest lieutenant now in the army were made 
a field officer, and were competent to fill the posi- 
tion, we should still have only half the necessary 
supply of field officers, and would have to draw 

[296] 



THE CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 

Upon men like you trained here at Plattsburg, 
and upon the National Guard for half our field 
officers, and for all our company officers. 

''But not all the regulars will prove successful 
in high office; this through no fault of their own, 
but because the present regular army system has 
warped and dwarfed some of them by its lack of 
a fair opportunity for growth and development. 
The average officer, who spends most of his life 
in small isolated army posts, cannot be expected 
to have learned the art of leading a regiment or 
a brigade. 

"The test of the regular army in warfare will 
be whether it will or will not be able to appreciate 
its own weaknesses. Many of its officers will 
prove less competent to lead troops, or to serve 
on the general staff, than many civilian officers 
who have had only six months' military experi- 
ence, but who have in civil life had experience in 
handling large affairs. 

"If the regular army early realizes this truth, 
and makes merit the sole criterion for promotion 
and responsibility, it will come out of the war 
with reputation greatly enhanced. If, on the 
other hand, it develops a class or caste feeling 
prejudicial to reserve and militia officers and 
detrimental to efficiency, it will fail in its mission, 
and will come out of the war without friends." 

Unfortunately for itself, the regular army, 
during the war, did not as a whole sense what 

[297] 



LEONARD WOOD 

General Wood had so clearly foreseen. Its 
spirit was reactionary instead of progressive. 

The military censorship, to which our Army in 
France was subjected, most often served to pro- 
tect our leaders and the Administration from 
just criticism, and less often to fulfil its ostensible 
purpose of depriving the Boche of information. 
This censorship hid from people at home what 
was evident to anyone in France; that the 
strength of our Army in Europe was not in the 
regular officers of whom we had the right to 
expect so much ; but was in the enlisted men, the 
pick of our 100,000,000 people, the youth and 
vigor of our nation. 

The greatest weakness of our Army in Europe 
was the mental rigidity of that type of regular of- 
ficer who could not realize that a new order of 
military things was ushered in when America 
adopted universal service and the draft. One of 
his most noticeable characteristics was his im- 
mediate and autocratic resentment against any- 
thing even approaching constructive criticism 
from civilian sources. This type of regular 
seemed incapable of perceiving what Wood saw 
clearly, namely that when the army became the 
people the autocratic discipline of America's old 
professional standing army would have to give 
place to a new and more republican discipline; — 
a discipline more like that of the democratic army 
of France, and of our own American Navy. 

[298] 



THE CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 

In past decades at West Point, the discipline 
had required that no fault be allowed to go un- 
detected or unpunished, little being said about 
making certain that no good work should go un- 
recognized and unpraised. 

The cadets of the entering class, — the "beasts" 
as the upper-classmen called them, — were looked 
down upon as an inferior caste; and the West 
Point graduate when he became an officer was 
only too often inclined to regard his enlisted men 
as inferiors instead of as subordinates. 

If Leonard Wood had had his way this situa- 
tion would have been modified before the war 
instead of after its termination. Better late 
than never, however ; and now at last, as a result 
of the war and after great travail, the end of the 
old order is in sight. The more progressive reg- 
ular officers, many of whom have always held 
sound views on this issue, have taken up the fight 
against the old reactionary order of things. 
Such men as Douglas MacArthur, the new super- 
intendent at West Point, and Charles Sum- 
merall, Frank Parker, George Moseley, Dennis 
Nolan, Charles Kilbourne, Halstead Dorey, Gor- 
don Johnston, William Lassiter, William Weigel, 
Edwin Glenn, and a score of others are earnestly 
and unselfishly striving for constructive read- 
justment. All these men had brilliant records 
abroad and most of them have, at one time or 
another, served under Wood and become inspired 
by his splendid Americanism. 

[299] 



LEONARD WOOD 

While the building up of democratic spirit and 
discipline in our army was not begun as soon as 
Leonard Wood had desired, he did nevertheless 
bring about an essential re-awakening of Amer- 
ican self-respect, and a general understanding of 
the necessity for conscription. 

In the light of after events it needs no argu- 
ment to prove that without these fifty thousand 
reserve officers partially trained by W^ood, with- 
out the system of ofiicer-training worked out 
experimentally at Plattsburg, and without the 
immediate enaction of the draft law made possi- 
ble by his campaign of education, Germany 
would have been able to crush France and Britain 
before America could arrive, and then to recoup 
herself could and would have exacted gigantic 
tribute from us and extended over the whole 
world the Prussian philosophy of government 
and morals. 

This frightful calamity would have overtaken 
us but for the genius of Leonard Wood, who 
accomplished his purpose in the face of and in 
spite of steadfast opposition from those in au- 
thority. 

In 1916 several of our universities expressed 
the gratitude which America, finally aroused, felt 
for Leonard Wood by conferring upon him 
LL.D. degrees. The one from Princeton was 
presented in the following terms: 

*Tn our defenseless state he has sounded the 
reveille to waken a slumbering nation from its 

[300] 



THE CONSERVATOR OF AMERICANISM 

dream of security, bidding us rise and take 
our place like men to save our freedom and 
help to save the imperiled freedom of the 
world." 



[301] 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE WORLD WAR 

As soon as he perceived that the United States 
yvsLS drifting on an irresistible current and would 
sooner or later, willing or unwilling, prepared or 
unprepared, inevitably be drawn into the World 
War, he began diligently to investigate the new, 
methods of warfare. 

As the ranking General of the Army, it was 
only natural that he should take it for granted 
that he would be called upon to bear an important 
part in the eventual struggle. With his usual 
instinct to make himself ready for any duty that 
lay before him, he asked leave to go to France, 
almost as soon as the war began, to study at first- 
hand the new tactical conditions which were 
there developing, and which differed radically 
from anything heretofore taught in our own 
Army. 

This permission was refused, but he did the 
next best thing and devoted himself to an untir- 
ing study of all war documents upon which he 
could lay hands, and to interviews with foreign 
officers visiting America; when the war forced 
European soldiers to re-cast their old ideas of 

[302] 



THE WORLD WAR 

military operations, while America persisted in 
ignoring all the new ideas, he made it his profes- 
sional duty and his personal pride to keep abreast 
of the times. 

After America had finally declared war, it be- 
gan to be evident that it was the intention to keep 
Wood permanently in America. His friends 
were indignant; they felt that they had a just 
grievance. But Wood wasted no time nursing 
grievances; he kept his temper and devoted his 
entire energy and ability to the accomplishment 
of the relatively unimportant tasks set for him. 

"When in 1918 he was sent on a short visit 
to France," says John Bruce Mitchell, *'to 
make a quick study of the front, to bring 
back his experiences for the benefit of men 
training in the United States, he went into 
an extremely delicate situation. The French 
and British military authorities realized that 
he was the foremost military man in Amer- 
ica, yet he w^as not in command of the Amer- 
ican Expeditionary Force. They realized that 
he knew more about European warfare, due 
to a first-hand study of the French and Ger- 
man armies, than did any man in the American 
army. They knew that the British War Minis- 
try was particularly worried because Leonard 
Wood had been relegated to the mere role of 
division commander. They realized that his 
presence in France would be embarrassing to the 
Commander and Chief of Staff of the American 

[303] 



LEONARD WOOD 

army. Leonard Wood had an international rep- 
utation. He had been the guest of the French 
army at maneuvers. He knew the French Pres- 
ident, and he was a Grand Officer of the Legion 
of Honor. He knew all the French Generals; 
Lloyd George wanted him to come to England. 
It was a chance that a man who could not efface 
self, who was not a diplomat, might have seized, 
but the whole time Leonard Wood was in France 
he simply obeyed orders. There was not a word 
out of him. He sought to see no one, except in 
the line of duty. The only time his name ap- 
peared in the newspapers was when he stood 
near a field gun which burst, wounding him; 
When he came out of the hospital, and sailed 
back to America, correspondents begged him for 
interviews. Leonard Wood said nothing." 

In July, 1918, his Division, the 89th, was 
ordered to France and reached the port of de- 
barkation. When Wood's baggage w^as already 
on ship-board an order came from Washington 
relieving him of command. This ended the last 
hope of his serving abroad. The disappointment 
of his men was tremendous. He himself realized 
this and also realized that they were certain to 
consider the order an injustice, not only to him 
but to themselves, and might let this make them 
less enthusiastic in action. He, therefore, called 
together the officers, and said : 'T am going back 
to Camp Funston to-morrow, where I shall give 

[304] 



THE WORLD WAR 

the best that is in me to the training of the new 
recruits who are being ordered there. Do not 
concern yourselves with my case, but get your 
minds on winning the war. If you would please 
me, play your part cheerfully and well. That 
means, when in action never fail to take your ob- 
jective, and never be late on your objective." 

After the armistice the division, then veteran 
of many battles, proudly sent him this message: 
''We have never failed to take our objective ; we 
never arrived late on our objective." 

During the war, every time things went wrong 
with the general organization of our divisions 
abroad or of our supply services at home, — and 
more went wrong, at greater sacrifice of life and 
treasure than has yet been revealed, men who 
knew Wood's capacity, chafing under the ineffi- 
ciency which they were powerless to remedy, 
sighed for his organizing power and regretted 
that America's army in France was denied the 
services of "her greatest administrator. 

"The powers that be" did not underestimate 
Wood's ability; on the contrary, they realized it 
all too well. They knew that if he were allowed 
half a chance to serve his country in a manner 
commensurate with his ability he would over- 
shadow them all. 

But in not daring either to send him to Europe 
or to elevate him above a subordinate position at 

[305] 



LEONARD WOOD 

home, they unconsciously paid him the highest 
compliment in their power; for their action, — 
and actions always speak louder than words, — is 
in itself an admission that Wood is greater than 
any of them. 



lfao6] 



CHAPTER XVIII 

CONCLUSION 

The two objections which are most often ad- 
vanced against Leonard Wood are: 
That he is too much of a miUtary man; 
That he is not enough of a military man. 

These two accusations are of course not voiced 
by the same set of people, nor is either of them 
advanced by any great number, but one or the 
other is nevertheless always spoken of whenever 
Leonard Wood is discussed by his ill-wishers. 

Whenever he is mentioned as a possibility for 
high military office his opponents in the regular 
army always say, "Oh, he is no soldier." 

When he is considered as a candidate for the 
governorship of a province or for some other 
civil office of importance his political enemies cry 
out, "But he is a soldier." 

It is important to discover who perpetuates 
these two ideas and from what motives they are 
kept alive. Since both charges cannot be true, 
we shall be able to kill at least one of them; or 
since two equal forces acting in opposition neu- 
tralize one another, we may even be able to re- 
move both from serious consideration. 

[307] 



LEONARD WOOD 

Is Leonard Wood too much of a military man 
to be entrusted with further high administrative 
functions? Yes, in the opinion of the Bolshe- 
vists, pacifists, pro-Germans, LW.W.'s and law- 
breakers he is exactly that. He is too military 
for those who would prefer to have no loyal effi- 
cient force to uphold the law and preserve the 
honor of our country. He was too much of a 
military man to suit those who preached peace at 
any price and wished us to shirk our responsibil- 
ities in the face of repeated outrages from Ger- 
many and Mexico. He was too military not to 
realize America's dangerous state of unpre- 
paredness at the very beginning of the great 
war, and to make whatever effort lay in his 
power to remedy the defective condition of our 
national defenses. 

To him and to Theodore Roosevelt we owe it 
that we did not enter the war too late to save our 
ideals from. Prussian domination. 

The cooperation we finally gave, arrived barely 
in time to save us and them from German rule, 
and then only because these two great patriots 
had been wise enough to realize our danger and 
powerful enough to re-awaken the conscience of 
the American people. 

The help we gave our allies came in the nick 
of time to save democracy only because Theodore 
Roosevelt by voice and pen stirred his country- 
men to action and because Leonard Wood dem- 
onstrated our acute need for preparedness. 

[308] 



CONCLUSION 

Wood was also too military to suit the Ger- 
mans. They knew from their spies in America 
how in 191 5 and 19 16 he was rousing and pre- 
paring the American people, and when we finally 
entered the war they naturally hoped that any 
one but Wood might be sent to France in com- 
mand. They had of course no great opinion of 
the purely military skill of any American ; know- 
ing, as they knew every detail of our unprepared- 
ness, that none of our officers had ever maneu- 
vered even a division. But they also knew that 
to execute an attack is only a very small part of 
the responsibihty of a Commander-in-Chief. 
They knew that in converting millions of raw 
recruits into an effective army, the chief requisite 
is organizing ability and that a great executive is 
much rarer than a skillful tactical commander. 
They were willing to concede that America might 
possibly have better troop leaders than Wood, 
but they were confident that a truly great admin- 
istrator like Wood could not occur twice in one 
country in one generation. 

Yes, for the Germans, General Wood was de- 
cidedly too military, but he was not too military 
for the statesmen of Great Britain and France, 
who repeatedly and anxiously wondered why he 
was not on the Western Front. 

The charge that Wood is not military enough 
comes almost exclusively from certain of his fel- 
low officers in the regular army, — a minority cut 

[309] 



LEONARD WOOD 

and dried in the West Point-Leavenworth mold. 

This is because he never views pubHc affairs 
solely from the standpoint of the soldier. 

Moreover, from the very fact that his early 
education was not military, his mind remains 
flexible and receptive to any new ideas in the art 
of war. 

Therefore we are led to disagree with that 
minority which thinks him not military enough. 

We rejoice that Wood escaped a West Point 
training, for the varied education, theoretical 
and practical, which he did obtain left him as 
much of a military man in experience, and as 
little of a military man at heart, as was George 
Washington. Both men entered the army from 
civil life, without any special military training, 
and each resorted to military measures only as a 
last resort. 

Leonard Wood's mihtary governorship both in 
Cuba and in the Philippines attracted the atten- 
tion and won the admiration of all civilized coun- 
tries for the very reason that his methods of 
reorganization were based on constructive, hy- 
gienic, legal and educational reforms, and were 
not forced upon the people by military pressure, 
to which all other colonial governors had found 
it necessary to resort. Never before in the his- 
tory of the world did any colonial administrator 
have in his methods so small an element of mil- 
itary compulsion. 

After his governorship of Cuba had termi- 

[310] 



CONCLUSION 

nated, he was able truthfully to say: "Although 
our government in Cuba was in form a military 
occupation, the Cuban civil courts were actually 
in control from start to finish." 

Leonard Wood is not military enough to re- 
press or oppress any people or class struggling 
toward greater freedom. Although of long lin- 
eage and honorable ancestry, he himself rose 
from humble circumstances, and therefore has 
deep sympathy with and a clear understanding 
of the difficulties which beset the masses of our 
people striving towards improved living condi- 
tions. 

He is ever firm in maintaining the law, but just 
as diligent in his eflforts to bring about modifica- 
tions of laws which have proved oppressive to 
the masses of any country where he has been in 
power. 

He is not too military for times of peace 
and harmony, but is military enough to use force 
as a last resort whenever the safety of our Coun- 
try is at stake and to deal effectively with such 
an emergency as a Bolshevist revolution. And, 
above all, he is a competent executive ; a business 
man fitted to deal effectively with economic 
readjustments which face our country. He is by 
training, ability and temperament America's 
greatest Administrator. 

When Wood entered Harvard College in 
[311] 



LEONARD WOOD 

1880, he was without influential friends, with 
no important family connections, and without 
any money except what he could himself earn, 
while he was studying, yet before he reached mid- 
dle age, he had, by sheer ability and indomitable 
courage, attained preeminent success in three 
widely divergent lines of activity. 

As a surgeon, he was so successful that he 
became the personal physician of two successive 
Presidents of the United States, one a Democrat, 
the other a Republican. 

As a soldier, his record was, for twenty years, 
the most brilliant of his generation in the Army. 

As a colonial administrator, his reputation is 
approached only by that of Lord Milner in South 
Africa, and by that of Lord Cromer in Egypt. 

But, after all, the most important element in 
Leonard Wood's career is not how good a soldier 
he is, nor how skillful a surgeon, nor how effi- 
cient an administrator. What is, at the present 
moment, most vital is the fact that his successive 
triumphs in such widely divergent professions, 
each undertaken under hampering conditions, 
reveal to his countrymen the superabundant 
energy, the native ability and the sterling char- 
acter which enabled him to rise to preeminent 
success in every position to which he has been 
called. 

We are recording the life of a man whose 
career is by no means finished, but whose past 
achievements give us just grounds for complet- 

[312] 



CONCLUSION 

ing his biography with the reasonable prediction 
that he will attain an equally great success in the 
fourth, final and highest stage of his life's work, 
which is his present championship of the ideals 
of Americanism, built on the basis of the Con- 
stitution of the United States. 

A man's judgment in future problems involv- 
ing his country's welfare can be fairly measured 
only by the accuracy of his past predictions of 
events which have since taken place, and not by 
his cleverness in explaining away his previous 
misconceptions. A man's future ability to serve 
his nation can best be estimated by the number 
and magnitude of the practical results he has 
actually achieved in the past, not by his expert- 
ness in writing excuses for having failed of such 
attainment. 

Judged by these two standards, Leonard 
Wood's record is flawless. He has ever been a 
true prophet in all matters pertaining to the poli- 
tical and military welfare of his native land, its 
allies and dependencies. He has never had to 
make excuses, for although the administrative 
tasks successfully allotted to him have been vast 
in scope, he has never in any one of them fallen 
short of exceptional success. 



[313] 



APPENDIX A 

OPINIONS BY ASSOCIATES OF LEONARD WOOD 

General Lawton, April i^th, 1898, speaking of Wood's 
part in the Geronimo Campaign. 

"I SERVED through the war of the rebellion and in many 
battles, but in no instance do I remember such devotion 
to duty or such an example of courage and perserverance. 
It was mainly due to Captain Wood's loyalty and resolu- 
tion that the expedition was successful." 

On September gth, 1886, during the campaign, Lawton 
had written: 

"I desire to particularly invite the attention of the de- 
partment commander to Asst. Surg. Leonard Wood, the 
only officer who has been with me through the whole 
campaign. His courage, energy, and loyal support dur- 
ing the whole time, his encouraging example to the com- 
mand when work was the hardest and prospects darkest, 
his thorough confidence and belief in the final success of 
the expedition, and his untiring efforts to make it so, 
have placed me under obligations so great that I can not 
even express them. . . ." 

5(C * =k Jk 5)S * * 

Theodore Roosevelt, speaking of the Geronimo Cam- 
paign. 

"The young doctor, tall, broad-chested, with his light- 
yellow hair and blue eyes, soon showed the stuff of 
which he was made. Hardly any of the whites, whether 
soldiers or frontiersmen, could last with him; and the 
friendly Indian trailers themselves could not wear hinx 
down. . . . 

[315] 



APPENDIX 

"On expeditions of this kind, where the work is so ex- 
hausting as to call for the last ounce of reserve strength 
and courage in the man, only a very high type of officer 
can succeed. Wood, however, never called upon his men 
to do anything that he himself did not do. They ran no 
risk that he did not run ; they endured no hardship which 
he did not endure ; intolerable fatigue, intolerable thirst, 
never-satisfied hunger, and the strain of unending watch- 
fulness against the most cruel and dangerous of foes ; 
through all this Wood led his men until the final hour 
of signal success. When he ended the campaign, he had 
won the high regard of his superior officers not merely 
for courage and endurance, but for judgment and entire 
trustworthiness. A young m.an who is high of heart, 
clean of life, incapable of a mean or ungenerous action, 
and burning with the desire to honorably distinguish 
himself needs only the opportunity in order to do good 
work for his country. 

Commended for "gallant and hazardous service, cour- 
age, and energy, encouraging the command under the 
most trying circumstances, and for untiring efforts in 
the campaign against hostile Apache Indians in Sonora, 
Mexico, during the greater part of which he commanded 
the detachment of infantry." (General Orders, No. 39, 
Headquarters of the Army, April 9, 1891.) 

Leonard Wood received his Congressional Medal of 
Honor as a result of the following correspondence: 

Inspector-General's Office, 
Los Angeles, CaL, July 22, 1894. 

Maj. J. G. GiLMORE, 

Assistant Adjutant-General. 
"Sir: Referring to . . . recommendations for brevet 
for Asst. Surg. Leonard Wood for gallant and hazardous 
service while serving under my command in the Geronimo 

[316] 



APPENDIX 

campaign ... I desire to call attention to some of the 
conditions which then existed, and which should form an 
important factor in considering the merit of the service 
of individuals, and which to a great extent have at this 
late day been lost sight of. 

"The outbreak of Geronimo and his band had occurred 
more than a year before this campaign was inaugurated, 
during which time the southern portion of New Mexico 
and Arizona and northern Sonora had been completely 
terrorized and the industries paralyzed by this Indian and 
his band. That portion of the army in New Mexico and 
Arizona had been operating more or less unsuccessfully 
all of this time. An expedition of Indians to the strong- 
hold of the hostiles had failed, and the commander been 
killed. The murders committed by the hostile Indians 
had reached alarming numbers, and their atrocities were 
unusual, revolting, and terrorizing. The army were dis- 
heartened and discouraged. The confidence of the people 
was shaken in their efficiency for this work. The press 
was loud and bitter in its criticisms of their incompetency. 
General Crook himself was subjected to open insult when 
traveling on the cars in Arizona. Congress was seriously 
considering the propriety of organizing a regiment of 
frontiersmen, and also authorizing a reward of $25,000 
for the capture of this Indian. 

"Under these conditions the expedition I had the honor 
to command was organized and entered upon its work. 
While there were plenty of good men and officers willing 
and desirous to undertake the difficult task set them, to 
that extent had their confidence in their ability to success- 
fully accomplish the object been shaken that none be- 
lieved any valuable results would be accomplished, and 
the fatigue and hardships of the work soon overcame the 
strength of the physically weak ones. 

"It is in this connection that I called special attention 
to First Lieutenant and Assistant-Surgeon Wood. He 
was not only willing and anxious to undertake the work 

[317] 



APPENDIX 

of the campaign, but believed every moment of the time 
that the issue would justify its inception, and he never 
lost an opportunity, either by his voice or example, to 
make it so. As a medical officer he was prompt, attentive, 
and untiring, but what I now refer to was his work, in- 
dependent of and in addition to his professional duties, 
work which he performed voluntarily because of his loyal 
soldierly feeling, and courage and enthusiasm in his 
work. 

"Assistant Surgeon Wood is entitled to consideration 
for his energy, courage, and soldierly example exhibited 
through the whole campaign. Among the special or in- 
dividual instances I cite the following: On the night of 
May 29, 1886, while on a trail closely following the hos- 
tile Indians, I found it imperative to communicate with 
General Miles. I endeavored to employ some men at a 
ranch to carry my message to the railroad, but could not 
induce them to go because of their fear of the hostiles 
•who were reported to have sent a raiding party between 
us and the railroad to draw us off the trail. Assistant 
Surgeon Wood volunteered to undertake the delivery of 
the message, and rode 35 miles, sent and received a reply 
to his message from General Miles, and returned to camp 
by 7:30 o'clock a. m.. May 30, having ridden 70 miles, 
and then marched with the command on foot a distance 
of 32 miles the same day, . . . 

"On the night of June 30, near Sinoquipa, Sonora, As- 
sistant Surgeon Wood, who had voluntarily accompanied 
the scouts along the San Augustin Mountains to look up 
the trail of the hostiles, volunteered to go alone, after 
four of the scouts had refused to accompany him because 
of the danger, to Sinoquipa to seek important informa- 
tion relative to a party of hostiles supposed to be near the 
town. Starting late in the afternoon in the direction 
Sinoquipa was supposed to lie — the country was unknown 
and without trails. . . . Arrived at Sinoquipa about 9 
p. M. One Mexican killed by these Indians and one 

[318] 



APPENDIX 

wounded were brought in while he was there. Starting 
the same night he returned alone to camp with the infor- 
mation, arriving about 2 o'clock a. m., having traveled a 
distance of about 34 miles. 

"July 2 the cavalry, having become exhausted, was left 
in camp to recuperate, and the expedition was continued 
with infantry only. Through the severity of the ex- 
posure, and from the great exertion required, only those 
possessing great vitality and endurance could hold out 
continuously. From this and other causes my officers 
became reduced, so that none were left with the infantry. 
Doctoi Wood volunteered to command them and on July 
2nd was assigned to their command. . . . During this 
time the most trying work of the campaign occured and 
the endurance of the command was tried to its utmost. 
Assistant Surgeon Wood marched at the head of his men, 
and by his example made their work possible. During 
this time he was bitten by a tarantula. The wound was 
painful in the extreme and the swelling very great, but 
he continued to march at the head of his men, making a 
forced march of 28 miles through an almost impassable 
country during intensely hot weather, suffering indescrib- 
able physical pain, his thigh being swollen to double its 
normal size and intensely inflamed. 

"His fortitude and courage at this time were something 
beyond anything I had ever before witnessed. On this 
day, July 13th, the camp of the hostiles was located by 
the scouts on the Yaqui River, where it flows through 
some of the roughest portion of the Sierra Madre. The 
camp was attacked by the scouts under Lieutenant Brown, 
Fourth Cavalry, and the infantry commanded by Asst. 
Surg. Leonard Wood. The hostiles were completely sur- 
prised, and abandoned their camp precipitately, fleeing 
in every direction, their camp and equipage, food, horses, 
and everything belonging to them falling into our hands. 
. . . Following this, and brought about by his suffering 
and exposure, Doctor Wood was, about July 15, while 

[319] 



. APPENDIX 

marching up the Yaqui River, stricken with fever, becom- 
ing delirious, and in his weak and exhausted condition I 
despaired of saving his life, but constructed a travois and 
determined to drag him to some ranch, if I could find one, 
and there leave him. Before starting, however, he re- 
gained his reason, refused to be sent back, was placed 
on a mule, and carried along until he was again able to 
assume his usual duties in command of the infantry. . . . 

"August 29th to 31st, Geronimo and his band having 
conditionally surrendered to me and having moved his 
people to a point near and under the protection of my 
camp, pending the receipt of instructions from General 
Miles, the Mexican troops presented themselves in force 
much larger than mine and demanded the custody of the 
hostiles. Declining to comply, I detached Lieutenant Gate- 
wood with his interpreter to escort the prisoners to 
United States territory, following with my command as 
soon as I could safely move from the Mexicans. Ac- 
companied by Assistant Surgeon Wood, I left the camp 
of my troops and proceeded to the camp of the hostiles. 
My command, having missed the trail, did not reach the 
camp, and I proceeded to overtake them, leaving Assis- 
tant Surgeon Wood and Lieutenants Clay and Gatewood 
with the hostiles, they remaining two days with them . . . 
at their mercy if they had been illy disposed toward them. 
Assistant Surgeon Wood was conspicuous on this occa- 
sion by preventing a possible misunderstanding by the 
exercise of coolness and good judgment. 

"In commending Assistant Surgeon Wood so highly I 
do not wish to be understood as implying that he is the 
only one connected with that campaign deserving con- 
sideration. In my opinion he is more deserving from 
the fact that he is the only officer who participated in 
the whole campaign from first to last and never lagged 
one instant in his duty and devotion. I believe that every 
officer and soldier who took part in that trying work is 
entitled and, judged by the merits of others who have 

[320] 



APPENDIX 

received consideration for like service, should receive 
either a brevet or a medal of honor, and in some instances 
both should be bestowed. . . . 

"Very respectfully, 
"H. W. Lawton. 
"Lieutenant-Colonel and Inspector-General." 



First Indorsement 
Headquarters Department of the East, 
Governors Island, N. Y ., February 5, 1895. 
Respectfully forwarded. 

I now most earnestly renew the recommendation, call- 
ing especial attention to the letter of Colonel Lawton, 
which describes one of the most laborious, persistent, and 
heroic campaigns in which men were ever engaged, and 
the fact that Capt. Leonard Wood, assistant surgeon, vol- 
unteered to perform the extraordinary hazardous and 
dangerous service is creditable to him in the highest de- 
gree. For his gallantry on the 13th of July in the sur- 
prise and capture of Geronimo's camp I recommend that 
he be brevetted for services on that date. 

Nelson A. Miles, 
Major-General. 

Adjutant-General's Office, 
Fehrua/ry 15, 1895. 
Respectfully submitted to the Lieutenant-General, with 
brief inclosed. 

J. C. Gilmore, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 

' Adjutant-General's Office, 

October 11, 1897. 
Respectfully submitted to the Major-General Com- 
manding the Army. 

W. P. Hall, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 

[321] 



APPENDIX 

Headquarters of the Army, 
Washington, D. C, December 28, 1897. 
Reference to the board which considers medal-of-honor 
cases desired by the Major-General Commanding. 

J. C. GiLMORE, 

Assistant Adjutant-General. 

War Department, Office of the Secretary, 

March 29, 1898. 
By direction of the President a medal of honor is pre- 
sented to Dr. Leonard Wood, U. S. Army. 

Throughout the campaign against hostile Apaches in 
the summer of 1886, this officer, then assistant surgeon 
and serving as medical officer with Captain Lawton's 
expedition, rendered specially courageous and able ser- 
vices involving extreme peril and display of most con- 
spicuous gallantry under conditions of great danger, 
hardship, and privation. . . . 

R. A. Alger, 
Secretary of War. 

The Secretary of War directs that in this case the 
medal be engraved as follows: 

The Congress 

to 

Capt. Leonard Wood, 

Asst. Surg., U. S. A., 

for 

distinguished conduct in 

campaign against Apache Indians, 

summer, 1886. 

H. C. CORBIN, 

Adjutant- General. 
Adjutant-General*s Office, April 4, 1898. 



[322] 



APPENDIX 

General Miles, said in the spring of 1898: 
"This officer served in the field under my command for 
several months during the terrible campaign against the 
Apache Indians under Geronimo. He is one of the most 
enterprising, intelligent, and fearless officers in the ser- 
vice, and competent to fulfill the duties of a field officer." 

General Laivton, early in 1898: 

"When through exposure and fatigue the infantry bat- 
talion lost its last officer (in the pursuit of Geronimo) 
Captain Wood volunteered to command it in addition to 
his duties as surgeon. In this duty Captain Wood dis- 
tinguished himself most. His courage, endurance, and 
example made success possible. . . ." 



Gen. Wm. M. Graham, spring of 1898: 

"With a high sense of honor in all the obligations of 
life, he is a most conscientious and zealous officer in the 
discharge of duty. His physique is superb; his mental 
qualifications are of the highest order." 

Gen. George A. Forsythe, early in the year 1898: 
"Captain Wood served with me on the frontier in 
Arizona and New Mexico a number of years ago. I have 
known him well for the past ten years and I regard him 
as one of the very best soldiers I know. . . . He 
has all the sound judgment, good sense, executive ability, 
experience, and courage requisite to make him one of 
the best and safest colonels in the Army," 

"Captain Wood is especially gifted for the command 
of men. He is a man of great ability and courage, and 
his experience in the Indian wars, and bringing with 
that experience the entire confidence of the Army, con- 

[323] 



APPENDIX 

firms all his friends, of whom I am glad to be one, claim 
for him." 

R. A. Alger, 
Secretary of War, 
April i6th, 1898. 

The following extracts are taken from report of Senate 
Committee on Military Affairs, printed ipo^ on the occOf- 
sion of the Rathbone trial: 

"President McKinley appointed Captain Wood to be 
colonel of the First United States Volunteer Cavalry on 
the 8th of May, 1898. He commanded his regiment, 
which constituted one of the two attacking columns at 
Las Guasimas on June 24, 1898. His brigade commander, 
the present Lieutenant-General Young, reported as fol- 
lows of him in this engagement : 

" *I ordered the attack, and it was executed in a manner 
winning the admiration of the division commander and 
all present who witnessed it. . . . 

" 'I can not speak too highly of the efficient manner in 
which Colonel Wood handled his regiment, and of his 
magnificent behavior on the field. Colonel Wood dis- 
dained to take advantage of shelter or cover from the 
enemy's fire while any of his men remained exposed to 
it — an error of judgment, but happily on the heroic side.' 

"His division commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, 
reported as follows : . 

" 'The magnificent and brave work done by his regi- 
ment under the lead of Colonel Wood testifies to his 
courage and skill. The energy and determination of 
this officer had been marked from the moment he re- 
ported to me at Tampa, Fla., and I have abundant evi- 
dence of his brave and good conduct on the field, and I 
recommend him for consideration of the Government.' 

"He was made brigadier-general of volunteers on the 
8th of July, 1898, having won his brigadier-generalship 
by the gallantry and efficiency with which he served as 

[324] 



APPENDIX 

colonel in the Santiago campaign, as he had won his 
colonelcy by the gallantry and efficiency with which he 
had served while acting as a line officer in command of a 
detachment of infantry in the campaigns against the 
Apaches. 

"Maj. Gen. W. S. Shafter, commanding the Fifth 
Army Corps, reported as follows: 

" 'The following officers were conspicuous for their 
bravery and handled their troops so well I desire to 
recommend them for promotion: . . . Colonel Wood, 
to be a brigadier-general.' 

"Shortly after being appointed brigadier-general he 
was made military governor of Santiago. He received the 
appointment on the recommendation of his military su- 
perior, Major-General Shafter, who cabled to Washing- 
ton on August 4 : *I think General Wood by far the best 
man to leave in command of the city of Santiago, and 
perhaps of the whole district.' So well did he perform 
his duties that President McKinley, on October 7, gave 
him the command of the Department of Santiago, making 
him also civil governor of the province of the same name, 
and appointing him major-general of volunteers on the 
7th of December, 1898. 

"On October i, 1899, Maj. John R. Brooke, command- 
ing the Division of Cuba, reported of him as follows : 

" *I desire to express my appreciation of the able assist- 
ance rendered me by the several department commanders 
in the transaction of the military portion of our duties 
in the Division of Cuba, as follows: . . . Brig. Gen. 
Leonard Wood.' 

"So well did he do his work as governor of the province 
of Santiago that, purely on his merits, on the recom- 
mendation of the Secretary of War, President McKinley 
appointed him military governor of the island of Cuba 
on December 20, 1899. So great was his success in his 
new position, a position at that time of as great responsi- 

[325] 



APPENDIX 

bility, difficulty, and importance as almost any other in 
our whole Government, that, by way of recognition and 
reward, somewhat over a year later, on the 4th of April, 
1901, on the nomination of President McKinley, he was 
made a brigadier-general in the United States Army. 
He continued to serve with striking efficiency as military 
governor of the island of Cuba until on May 20, 1902, he 
turned over the government of the island to the first presi- 
dent of the Republic of Cuba. In the official records 
General Wood's services during these years are spoken 
of as follows: 

(Extract from General Orders, N'o. 66, Ad jutant-G ent- 
eral' s Office, Jidy 4, 1902, to the Army of the United 
States.) 

" 'The President thanks the officers and enlisted men 
who have been maintaining order and carrying on the 
military government of Cuba, because they have faith- 
fully given effect to the human purposes of the Ameri- 
can people. They have governed Cuba wisely, recording 
justice and individual liberty ; have honestly collected and 
expended for the best interests of the Cuban people reve- 
nues amounting to over $60,000,000; have carried out 
practical and thorough sanitary methods, greatly improv- 
ing the health and lowering the death rate of the island. 
They have gradually trained the Cubans in all branches 
of administration, so that the new Cuban Government, 
upon assuming power, has begun its work with a force 
of Cuban employees competent to execute its orders. 
The have transferred the government of Cuba to the 
Cuban people amid universal expressions of friendship 
and good will, and have left a record of order, justice, 
and liberty, of rapid improvement in material and moral 
conditions, a progress in the art of government which re- 
flects great credit on the people of the United States.* " 
(General Wood was military governor of Cuba during 
most of the time covered by this order.) 

******* 

[326] 



APPENDIX 

Theodore Roosevelt, 
January yth, 1899. 

"What I am about to write concerning the great service 
rendered, not only to Cuba, but to America, by Brigadier- 
General Leonard Wood, now Military Governor of San- 
tiago, is written very much less as a tribute to him than 
for the sake of pointing out what an object-lesson he has 
given the people of the United States in the matter of 
administering those tropic lands in which we have grown 
to have so great an interest. . . . 

"The great importance of the personal element in this 
work makes it necessary for me to dwell upon General 
Wood's qualifications as I should not otherwise do. The 
successful administrator of a tropic colony must ordi- 
narily be a man of boundless energy and endurance; and 
there were probably very few men in the army at San- 
tiago, whether among the officers or in the ranks, who 
could match General Wood in either respect. No soldier 
could outwalk him, could live with more indifference on 
hard and scanty fare, could endure hardship better, or 
do better without sleep; no officer ever showed more 
ceaseless energy in providing for his soldiers, in recon- 
noitering, in overseeing personally all the countless de- 
tails of life in camp, in patrolling the trenches at night, 
in seeing by personal inspection that the outposts were 
doing their duty, in attending personally to all the thou- 
sand and one things to which a commander should at- 
tend, and to which only those commanders of marked 
and exceptional mental and bodily vigor are able to at- 
tend. . . . 

"Both his medical and military training stood him in 
good stead. I was frequently in Santiago after the sur- 
render, and I never saw Wood when he was not engaged 
on some one of his multitudinous duties. He was per- 
sonally inspecting the hospitals ; he was personally super- 
intending the cleaning of the streets ; he was personally 
hearing the most important of the countless complaints 

[327] 



APPENDIX 

made by Cubans against the Spaniards, Spaniards against 
Cubans, and by both against Americans ; he was person- 
ally engaged in working out a better system of sewerage 
or in striving to secure the return of the land-tillers to 
the soil. I do not mean that he ever allowed himself to 
be swamped by mere detail; he is much too good an 
executive officer not to delegate to others whatever can 
safely be delegated ; but the extraordinary energy of the 
man himself is such that he can in person oversee and 
direct much more than is possible with the ordinary 
man." 

^m ^5 jfe Sk ik ^ jfe 

Extract from the report of the Secretary of War 
(Elihu Root), dated December i, 1902. 

"I know of no chapter in American history more satis- 
factory than that which will record the conduct of the 
miHtary government of Cuba. The credit of it is due, 
first of all, to Brig.-Gen. Leonard Wood, the commander 
of the Department of Santiago until December, 1899, 
and thenceforth the military governor of the island." 

The War Department, by direction of the President, 
thanked General Wood and the officials serving under 
Mm for their services in Cuba in General Orders, No. 
38, Headquarters of the Army, 1903 : 

"The administration of General Wood, both as military 
commander of the Division and Department of Cuba and 
as military governor, was highly creditable. The civil 
government was managed with an eye single to the benefit 
of the Cuban people. Under the supervision and control 
of the military governor the Cuban people themselves had 
an opportunity to carry on their own government to a 
constantly increasing degree, so that when Cuba assumed 
her independence she started with the best possible chance 
of success. Out of an utterly prostrate colony a free 
republic was built up, the work being done with such 
signal ability, integrity, and success that the new nation 

[328] 



APPENDIX 

started under more favorable conditions than has ever 
before been the case in any single instance among her 
fellow Spanish-American republics. This record stands 
alone in history, and the benefit conferred thereby upon 
the people of Cuba was no greater than the honor con- 
ferred upon the people of the United States." 

Report of Senate Committee on Military Affairs, 
printed January, 1903. 

"General Wood has received each promotion as a 
reward of signal gallantry or signal efficiency in the po- 
sition from which he was promoted." 

******* 

Theodore Roosevelt, 

July 30, 1910. 

"Nearly twelve years ago, when Leonard Wood was 
acting as Governor of Santiago, I wrote in The Outlook 
about what he had already achieved, and what he could 
be trusted to achieve. During the intervening twelve 
years he has played a very conspicuous part among the 
men who have rendered signal service to the country. . . . 
What has been accomplished in the Philippines, in 
Cuba, in Porto Rico, in Panama, and in San Domingo 
during these twelve years represents a sum of achieve- 
ment of which this Nation has a right to be extremely 
proud. In each locality the problem has been different, 
in each locality it has been solved with signal success. . . . 
This record is primarily due to the admirable quality 
of the men put at the head of affairs in the different 
places. Messrs. Taft, Luke Wright, Smith and Forbes, 
Messrs. Hunt, Winthrop, Post and Colton, Governor 
Magoon, Colonel Goethals — to these and their colleagues 
and subordinates the country owes a heavy debt of obli- 
gation. 

"Colonel Goethals, under whom the gigantic work of 
the Panama Canal is being accomplished, with literally 
astounding rapidity and success, is a representative of 

[329] 



APPENDIX 

the Army. The share of the army in the honor roll is 
very large. ... As a whole, of all the work of the army 
officers, the greatest in amount, and the greatest in va- 
riety of achievement, must be credited to General Wood. 
And moreover, he has at times combined with singular 
success the functions of civil administrator and military 
commandant. The part played by the United States in 
Cuba has been one of the most honorable ever played by 
any nation in dealing with a weaker Power, one of the 
most satisfactory in all respects ; and to General Wood 
more than to any other one man is due the credit of 
starting this work and conducting it to a successful con- 
clusion during the earliest and most difficult years. Like 
almost all of the men mentioned, as well as their col- 
leagues, General Wood of course incurred the violent 
hatred of many dishonest schemers and unscrupulous ad- 
venturers, and of a few more or less well-meaning per- 
sons who were misled by these schemers and adventurers ; 
but it is astounding to any one acquainted with the facts 
to realize, not merely what he accomplished, but how he 
succeeded in gaining the good will of the enormous ma- 
jority of the men whose good will could be won only in 
honorable fashion. Spaniards and Cubans, Christian 
Filipinos and Moros, Catholic ecclesiastics and Protest- 
ant missionaries — in each case the great majority of those 
whose opinion was best worth having — grew to regard 
General Wood as their special champion and ablest 
friend, as the man who more than any other understood 
and sympathized with their peculiar needs and was 
anxious and able to render them the help they most 
needed. . . . 

"His administration was as signally successful in the 
Moro country as in Cuba, In each case alike it brought 
in its train peace, an increase in material prosperity, and 
a rigid adherence to honesty as the only policy tolerated 
among officials. 

"In our country there are some kinds of success which 

[330] 



APPENDIX 

receive an altogether disproportionate financial reward; 
but in no other country is the financial reward so small 
for the kind of service done by Leonard Wood and by 
the other men whose names I have given above. Gen- 
eral Wood is an army officer with nothing but an army 
officer's pay, and we accept it as a matter of course that 
he should have received practically no pecuniary reward 
for those services which he rendered in positions not 
such as an army officer usually occupies. There is not 
another big country in the world where he would not 
have received a substantial reward such as here no one 
even thinks of his receiving. Yet, after all, the reward 
for which he most cares is the opportunity to render 
service, and this opportunity has been given him again 
and again." 

******* 
"General Wood is easily the ablest soldier the nation 
has produced since the Civil War. If we should become 
involved in war to-morrow I don't know where I should 
look for a man to take his place. He would be the one 
man to take command." 

Theodore Roosevelt, 1908. 
******* 

"General Leonard Wood combines in a very high de- 
gree the qualities of entire manliness with entire upright- 
ness and cleanliness of character. He is a man of high 
ideals who scorns everything mean and base and who 
possesses those robust and hardy qualities of body and 
mind for the lack of which no merely negative virtue 
can atone. ... He has shown himself one of the most 
useful and patriotic of American public servants, and has 
made all good Americans his debtors by what he has 
done. . . . During these last eighteen years he has ren- 
dered to America service of the very highest values and 
of a kind that could be rendered only by a man of wholly 
exceptional power and ability, ardent in his big-hearted 



APPENDIX 

devotion to the honor of the flag and the welfare of the 
nation." 

Theodore Roosevelt, 

March, 191 7. 

4: :4: 4c ^ H< ^ 4: 

"The higher the position to which he may be appointed, 
the greater will be his value." 

General Lawton, 1898. 



[332] 



APPENDIX B. ^ 

A List of Leonard Wood's Ancestors Who Ren- 
dered Patriotic Service from 1620 to 1865: 

SERVICE IN THE CIVIL WAR. 

Dr. Charles Jewett Wood, his father, served through 
the entire War in the Medical Corps. 

******* 

HIS ANCESTORS WHO SERVED IN THE WAR 
OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Abel Cutler, Sudbury, Mass., born March 9, 1759. 

Served as Private in Captain Andrew's Company in 
Colonel Marshall's Regiment, 1776. Enlisted June 13, 
1776. 

Also in Colonel Thomas Poor's Regiment, 1778. Dis- 
charged December 16, 1780. 

Timothy Flagg, Waltham, Mass., born March 10, 
1741. 

Private in Captain Abraham Peirce's Company, called 
out by Colonel Thomas Gardner in the alarm of April 
19, 1775, to march to Concord and Lexington. His Com- 
pany served until Saturday the Fourth, the day after the 
fight at Concord. 

He enlisted again April 25, 1775 in Colonel William 
Bond's 37th Regiment at Camp Prospect Hill. The Com- 
pany marched at the taking of Dorchester Heights by 
order of General Washington. 

Served also in Colonel Dike's Regiment, 1777. 

John Nixon, born at Framingham, Mass., March 4, 
1725- 

[333] 



APPENDIX 

Was a member of the Expedition against Cape Breton 
in 1745, under Sir William Pepperhill, and was at the 
capture of Louisburg. 

After serving in the Army and Navy for seven years, 
he returned to Framingham, but soon entered the Army 
again and as Captain fought at Ticonderoga and in the 
battle of Lake George. 

In the Revolution he led a company of Minute Men at 
Lexington, and commanded a regiment at Bunker Hill, 
where he received a wound from which he never entirely 
recovered. 

He was appointed Brigadier-General by the Continental 
Congress on August 9, 1776. and entrusted with the com- 
mand of Governors Island in the Harbor of New York, 
being the first American officer to hold that post. 

In 1777 he served under Major-General Horatio Gates. 
At the battle of Stillwater he commanded the First 
Massachusetts Regiment. Here a cannon ball passed so 
near his head as to impair permanently the sight of one 
eye and the hearing of one ear. Owing to failing health 
he resigned his commission Sept. 12, 1780. 

MiCAH Reed, born in Abington, Mass., February i, 

1743- 

Served as Sergeant in Captain William Reed's Com- 
pany, in Colonel John Bailey's Regiment of Minute Men, 
which marched to Concord and Lexington on the alarm 
of April 19, 1775. 

Also in Captain Edward Cobb's Company in Colonel 
Edward Mitchel's Regiment. 

His Company marched from Abington to the "Farms" 
in Braintree, March 4, 1776. / 

John White, Sr., of Marshfield and Blanford, Mass., 
born 1738. 

EnHsted in the Continental Army May 20, 1781, for 

[334] 



APPENDIX 

a term of three years. Age. 43. Occupation, Doctor of 
Medicine. 

John White, Jr., of Marshfield and Blanford, Mass., 
born 1763. 

Son of Doctor John White, Sr. Served under com- 
mand of Captain Park. 

Discharged July 25, 1781. Age 17. 

Eli Wood, of Brookfield, Mass., born February i6, 
1753. 

Private in Colonel Ebenezer Leonard's Regiment, 1775. 

Also in Colonel Wigglesworth's Regiment, having en- 
listed for a term of three years from February i, 1777. 
At Valley Forge 1778. 

Corporal in Colonel John Rand's Regiment July 5, 
1780. 

Discharged October 10, 1780. 

He named his seventh child, Leonard, after his old 
Colonel. This son was the grandfather of the present 
Leonard Wood. 

HIS ANCESTORS WHO SERVED IN THE COLONIAL 
PERIOD, 1620-1775. 

Joseph Andrews, 1597-1635. 

Deputy from Hingham to the General Court of Mas- 
sachusetts, 1636, 1637, 1638. 

Appointed in Arbitration Commission to settle the 
boundaries between the several Colonies. 

Samuel Appleton, 1586-1670. 

Deputy from Ipswich to the General Court of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, 1637. 

Associate Justice of the Quarter Court, 1637. 

Ellis Barron, 1600-1676. Watertown, Mass. 
Soldier in King Philip's War. 

i[335l 



APPENDIX 

Thomas Bartlett, i 594-1654. 

Ensign, 1639. 

Lieutenant in the Company of Watertown, Massachu- 
setts, 1639-1645. 

Served during Pequot War. 

John Bent, 1603-1672. Sudbury, Mass. 

In Major Simon Willard's expedition against the In- 
dian Chief Ninigret in 1654. 

John Bigelow, 1617-1703. Watertown, Mass. 
Served in Pequot War and in King PhiHp's War. 

Samuel Bigelow, 1653-1732. 

Representative from Watertown to the General Court 
of Massachusetts, 1708-1710. 

Thomas Bigelow, 1683-1756. 

Representative from Watertown to the Massachusetts 
General Court, 1738. 

Lieutenant of Infantry, 1741. 

Joseph Boynton, 1645-1730. Rowley, Mass. 

Deputy from Rowley to the Massachusetts General 
Court, 1697-1714. 

Soldier in the provincial military forces of Massa- 
chusetts Bay. 

Nicholas Browne, 1673. Lynn, Mass. 

Deputy to the General Court of Massachusetts Bay 
from Lynn, 1641 ; from Reading, 1671, 1672. 

Samuel Chapin, 1595-1675. 

Magistrate of County Court at Springfield, Massachu- 
setts, 1652. 

Appointed by the General Court of Massachusetts Bay 
Colony to govern Springfield ; when it was burned by 
the Indians in King Philip's War he was a participant in 
repelling the attack on fortified houses. 

[336] 



APPENDIX 

Richard Church, 1608-1668. Plymouth. 

Member of Plymouth Mihtary Company, 1643. Served 
m Pequot War. 

Francis Cooke, 1574-1663. 

Passenger on the Mayftower. 

One of the Recognized Historic Founders of Ply- 
mouth Colony. "^ 

Signer of the Mayflower Compact. 

Member of Myles Standish's Company in expedition 
agamst Indians in "First Encounter." 

Member of Plymouth Military Company. 

Griffin Craft, 1630-1689. 

Deputy from Roxbury to the General Court of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, 1638, 1663-1667. 

16^6^"*^"^''^ of a Roxbury Military Company, 1653- 

James Cutler, 1606-1694. Lexington, Mass 
Member of Lexington Military Company 
Served in King Philip's War. 

Thomas Cutler, 1648-1722. Lexington, Mass 

^ Lieutenant of the Lexington Militia under Captain 

Anthony Fames, 

Deputy from Hingham to the General Court of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, 1637, 1638, 1643. 

Deputy from Marshfield to the General Court of PIv- 
mouth, 1653-1658, 1661. ^ 

Member of a Council of War, 1657. 

Lieutenant, 1645, 

John Fay, 1648-1690. Marlboro, Mass 

PhHip" Wan '' ''' """''"' ""'""^^ ^"""^ K^"g 



APPENDIX 

John Fiske, 1619-1684. Wenham, Mass. 

Deputy from Wenham to the Massachusetts General 
Court, 1669, 1679. 

Ensign of Wenham MiHtary Company. 

Michael Flagg, 1651-1711. Watertown, Mass. 

Soldier in the Massachusetts provincial military forces. 

Thomas Flagg, 1616-1698. Watertown, Mass. 

Served as a private in the Train Band until 1681, when 
he was 65 years of age. 

Charles Gott, died 1667. Salem & Wenham, Mass. 
Deputy to the Massachusetts General Court, 1635. 

Charles Gott, Jr., 1639-1708. Wenham, Mass. 
Soldier in the Company of Foot at Wenham, 1683. 

Henry Gilbert, 1661-1740. Brookfield, Mass. 

Built the Gilbert's Fort at Brookfield, 1688, as defense 
against Indians. 

John Gilman, 1624-1708. 

Councillor, Province of New Hampshire, 1679-1682. 

Representative from Exeter to the General Assembly, 
1693. 

Speaker of the Assembly, 1693-1697. 

Lieutenant of the Exeter Military Company, 1669. 

Judge of Norfolk County Court, 1678-1679. 

William Hagar, 1659- i 731. Watertown, Mass. 

Served under Captain Nathaniel Davenport in King 
Philip's War. 

Stephen Hopkins, died 1644. 
Passenger on the Mayflower. 

[338] 



APPENDIX 

One of the Recognized Historic Founders of the PIv- 
month Colony. ^ 

Served under Captain Myles Standish, 1621 
Member of the Governor's Council, 1633-1636 
Member of Council of War for Plymouth, 1642' 
Volunteer in Pequot War. 

John How, died 1687. Marlboro, Mass. 

Commanded Garrison House at Marlboro in Kine 
Philips War, 1675-1676. ^ 

Joseph Jewett, 1609-1661. Rowley, Mass 

Deputy from Rowley to Massachusetts General Court 
1651, 1652, 1653, 1654, 1660. 

Joseph Jewett, 1656-1694. Rowley, Mass 

In King Philip's War, under Captain Samuel Brockle- 
bank. Later Captain of a Company. 

John Livermore, 1606-1684. Watertown, Mass 
Corporal in New Haven Military Company, 1647. 

John Livermore, Jr., 1638-1718. Watertown, Mass 
Soldier in King Philip's War. 
Lieutenant. 

George Morton, 1599- 1624. 

Q^on °^ ^^ ^^^°§^"i^ed Historic Founders of Plymouth 

John Morton, 1616-1673. Middleboro. 

Deputy from Bridgewater to the General Court of 
Plymouth Colony, 1672-73. 

Jacob Nash, died 1717. 

Lieutenant in Captain Ephraim Hunt's Companv in 
French and Indian War, 1689. 

[339] 



APPENDIX 

James Nash. 

Deputy from Weymouth to the General Court of 
Massachusetts Colony, 1655, 1662, 1667. 

George Phillips, i 593-1644. 

One of the Recognized Historic Founders of the 
Colony of Massachusetts Bay. 

Minister at Watertown, 1630-1644. Active in Found- 
ing and Forwarding the Interests of the Colony prior to 
1675- 

Samuel Phillips, 1625-1696. Rowley, Mass. 

Preacher of the Election Sermon to the Alassachusetts 
General Court, 1678. 

William Reade, 1605-1663. Weymouth, Mass. 

Ensign of Foot Company, 1640. 

Deputy from Weymouth to the General Court, 1635, 
1636, 1638. 

William Reade, Jr., 1639- 1706. Weymouth, Mass. 
Served in King Philip's War. 

Edmund Rice, i 594-1663. Sudbury, Mass. 

Deputy to the General Court of Massachusetts Colony, 
1640, 1643, 1652, 1653, 1654. 

Edward Rice, 1619-1712. Marlboro, Mass. 

Member of the West Middlesex Regiment, which was 
quartered in his garrison house, 1691. 

Robert Seaver, 1608-1683. Roxbury, Mass. 
Served in King Philip's War. 

Samuel Sherman. 

Governor's Assistant under Governor John Winthrop. 
Ensign and Lieutenant, 1667. 

[340] 



APPENDIX 

Samuel Sprague, 1640-1710. Marshneld. 

Deputy from Marshfield to the Plymouth General 
Court, 1682, 1683, 1684, 1686. 

Secretary of the Colony, 1686, 1689, 1690, 1691. 

Gregory Stone, 1590-1672. Cambridge, Mass. 

Deputy to General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony, 
1638. 

John Stone, 1618-1683. Cambridge, Mass. 

Deputy to the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, 
I 682- I 683. 

Richard Swan, died 1678. 

Deputy from Rowley to the General Court of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, 1660, 1667-1673, 1675, 1677. 

In King Philip's War, and expedition to Canada. 

Samuel Symonds, 1595-1678. 

Deputy from Ipswich to the General Court of the 
Colony, 1 638- 1 642. 

Governor's Assistant, 1643-1673. 

Deputy Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 
I 673- I 678. 

John Thompson, 1616-1696. 

Deputy from Barnstable to the General Court of Ply- 
mouth Colony, 1671, 1672; from Middleburgh, 1674, 
1675, 1680, 1681-1686. 

Lieutenant in King Philip's War, 1675. 

Christopher Wadsworth, died 1688. Duxbury. 

Deputy from Duxbury to the General Court of Ply- 
mouth Colony, 1639. 

In Captain Myles Standish's Company, 1643. 

' [341] 



APPENDIX 

John Wadsworth, 1638- 1700. Duxbury. 

Deputy from Duxbury to General Court of Plymouth 
Colony, 1690, 1691. 

Deputy from Duxbury to the Massachusetts General 
Court, 1694. 

Daniel Warren, 1628-1715. Watertown, Mass. 
Served in King Philip's War. 

Richard Warren. 

Passenger on the Mayflower, 1620. 

One of the Recognized Historic Founders of the 
Plymouth Colony. 

Signer of the Mayflower compact. 

Fought in the "First Encounter" with the Indians, at 
Wellfleet Harbor, Dec. 8, 1620. 

John Whipple, 1605- 1669. 

Deputy from Ipswich to the General Court of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, 1640, 1641, 1642, 1646, 1650-1653. 

John Whipple, 1626- 1683. 

Deputy from Ipswich to the General Court of Massa- 
chusetts, 1674, 1679, 1682, 1683. 

In Captain John Appleton's Troop, 1668. 

Lieutenant in Captain Nicholas Paige's Company in 
Mount Hope Campaign. 

King Philip's War, Captain of troop, 1676. 

John Whipple, 1657-1722. Ipswich, Mass. 

Representative from Ipswich to the General Court of 
Massachusetts, 1695. 

Lieutenant, 1700. 

Captain, 1708. 

Judge of Sessions Court. 

[342] 



APPENDIX 

John White, 1664-1727. Haverhill, Mass. 

Ensign, 1692. 

Lieutenant, 1697. 

Captain, 171 5. 

Commanded Garrison House at Haverhill, 1694. 

Representative, 1700, 1702, 1703, 1713, 1715, 1716, 
1719. 

Clerk of the House of Representatives, 1702. 

Peregrine White, 1620-1704. Born on the Mayflower 
the day before landing. 

Captain of Colonial Troops. 

Member of Council of War for Plymouth Colony, 
1675. 

Samuel White, 1718-1801. Haverhill, Mass. 

Justice of the Peace. 

Representative to the General Court of Massachusetts. 

Delegate to the first Provincial Congress at Salem, 
October 7th, 1774. 

Thomas White, i 590-1679. Weymouth, Mass. 
Member of the Weymouth Militia. 
Deputy, 1637-1671, to Massachusetts General Court. 

William White, ' 

Passenger on the MayHoiuer, 1620. 

Signer of the Compact. 

One of the Recognized Historic Founders of the Ply- 
mouth Colony. 

William White, 1610-1690. Haverhill, Mass. 
Founder of Haverhill. 
Captain of first Military Company, 1648. 

William White, 1694- 1737. Haverhill, Mass. 

Representative from Haverhill to the Massachusetts 
General Court, 1733, 1734. 

Captain of Haverhill Military Company. 

[343] 



APPENDIX 

Samuel Wood (or Woods), 1636-1718, of Watertown 
and Groton. 

He was a member of the Train Band of Watertown. 
In 1662 he moved to Groton where he was one of the 
original proprietors, and resided in the town until its 
destruction by the Indians in King Philip's War in 1676, 
when he participated in its defense. When the town was 
abandoned, he returned to Watertown. But in 1677 ^^ 
signed the agreement made at Concord, to resettle Groton, 
and the following year went back to Groton. 

In King William's War in 1691-1692 his home was 
made a garrison house for defense against Indian attacks. 



[344] 



INDEX 



Albuquerque, 67 

Alger, Secretary, 53, 74, 75, 

293, 322, Z2Z, 324 
Algonquins, 58 
AH, Dato, 217 to 250 

cannon of, 241, 248 

death of, 250 

defeat of, 243, 244 

parleys with, 242, 247, 248, 
249 

pursuit of, 245, 246 
Aliquippa, Queen, 59 
Allegheny Mountains, 58 
American Constitution, 22, 23, 

313 
Americanism, 20, 21, 47, 278, 

281, 282, 294, 313 
Apaches, 56, 59, 60, 61, 62, 64, 

6s, 66, (>7 
Arizona, 50, 51, 56, 57, 58, 62, 

. 66, 71, 75 
Army, British, 259, 303 
Army, French, 303 
Army Officers, U. S. 
defects in promotion of, 268, 

269, 270 
elimination of unfit, 267, 268, 

270 
foreign languages for, 272 
foreign travel for, 271, 272, 

273 
Ashford, Dr. Bailey K., 257 
Athens, Ga., 44 
Autocracy, 281 

B 

Bacon, Robert, Sr., 293 
Baker, Ray Stannard, 53, 109, 



Barlow, Capt. Edward, xi, 28, 

31. Z^, 33, 34, 35, 36, Z7, 38 
Barlow, Capt. Jesse, 32, 33, 34 
Barlow, Capt. Will, 31 
Bates, Dr., 53 
Bates, General, 227 
Battle of Las Guasimas, 79, 

82, 8s, 87, 89, 90 
Battle of San Juan, 72, 79, 87 
Beri-Beri, 55 
Bishop of Habana Donatus, 

161, 163, 164 
Blackhawk, S9 
Blizzard, Mr., 121, 122 
"Bloody Ground," the, 58 
Board of Pardons, 156 
Bolsheviks, 21, 278, 281, 308, 

311 
Borden, Col., 152 
Borneo, 216, 223 
Boston, 49 

Boston City Hospital, 48, 49 
Boyhood Books, 39 
Bradford, Gov., 21 
British Army, 259, 303 
Brooke, General, 137, 325 
Buddajo, 120, 222 
Bullitt, W. M., 293 
Buxton, G. E., 293 
Buzzards Bay, 24, 25, 30 



Camp Funston, 278 

Cancio, Seiior Leopold, 169, 

170 
Cape Cod, 22, 24, 32, 41, 57, 58 
Carroll, Col. Henry, 80, 93 
Carroll, Surgeon, 188, 197, 198 
Cataumet, 25, 38 



[345] 



INDEX 



Celebes Islands, 217 

Ceylon, 219 

Charleston, 58 

Chicago Civilian Relief Soc, 

279 
Chickamauga, 259 
Chiltonville, Mass., 24 
City Hospital, Boston, 48, 49 
Civil War, 19, 24, 52 
Clark, Grenville, 293 
Cleveland, President, 53 
Colonial Wars, 20 
Commerce, Department of, 

138, 140, 142, 149 
complications, financial, 144, 

145, 170 
constitution, 175, 179, 180, 

182, 183 
courts, reformed, 154, 155, 

156, 157, 158 
desire for immediate inde- 
pendence, 127 
election, preliminary, 176, 

177, 178, 179, 181, 183, 184 
fear of annexation, 127, 128, 

129, 130 
fear of exploitation by 

Americans, 128, 135 
finance, department of, 138, 

142, 166, 169 
hospitals, 148 
insane asylums, 148, 149 
instruction, department of 

public, 138, 140, 142 
justice, department of, 139, 

140, 142, 153, 154 
marriage laws, 159, 160, 164, 

166 
new laws, 134, 135 
prisons, and care of orphans, 

14s, 146, 147 
public works, department of, 

139, 140, 142, 152, 153 

railroads, 151, 152 

reorganization of municipal- 
ities and provinces, 135, 
136, 137, 140, 143 

rural guards, 132, 133, 134, 

177 
schools, public, 167, 168 



Commerce, state, department 
of, 137, 138, 139, 142, 143 
strikes, 151 

taxation, 141, 144, 170 
university of Habana, 164, 
165 . 
Communism, 281 
Conant, Ernest L., 167 
Congressional Medal of Honor, 

69, 94, 316 to 322 
Constitutional Law, Wood's 

devotion to, 21, 22 
Cooke, Francis, 21 
Cotabato, 225, 240, 247 
Cotabato River, 241, 245, 247 
Creelman, James, 222 
Cromer, Lord, 205, 219, 312 
Crook, General, 56 
Cuba, 54, Ti, 94. 127 to 187, 
310, 319 
Cabinet officers, selection of, 
138, 139, 140, 160, 161, 162, 
163 
Catholic Church property, 
160, 161, 162, 163 
Custer Massacre, 57 



D 



Daiguiri Beach, 81, 94 

Dakota Indians, 58 

Davao, 225 

Davis, Dwight, 293 

Davis, General, 220 

Davis, Richard Harding, 293 

Death Valley, 63 

Decentralization, Importance 

of, 124, 125 
Department, Southeastern, 43 

Eastern, 121 
Desertions, among enlisted 

men, 276 
Dewey, Admiral, 271 
Dibblee, Benj., 293 
Dimock, Frank, 35 
Dimock, Frank, Jr., 28, 35, 39 
Dodge, Grenville, 107 
Dorey, Halstead, xi, 46, 284, 

299 
Duncan, Colonel, 120, 222 



[346] 



INDEX 



Egypt, 205, 219 

El Caney, 89. 92 

Eliot, President of Harvard, 

167 
Ellis Island, 121, 122 
Estevez Y Romero, 176, 186 



Finlay, Dr.. 196, 197 

First encounter, 19, 60 

First Volunteer Cavalry Regi- 
ment, 71, 74, 79, 80 

Fish, 3gt. Hamilton, 83 

Foraker, Senator J. B., 215 

Forbes, Cameron, 167 

Forsythe, Gen. George, 50, 323 

Fort Huachucha, Arizona, 50, 
56, 60 

Fort McPherson, Georgia, 43, 

53 
Fourth of July casualties, 254 
Frederick the Great, 114 
"Freetchy," Barbara, 35, 36 
French and Indian Wars, 20, 

58, 60 
French Army, 303 
Funston, General, 206, 221, 290 



Garcia, General, 108 
Gary, steel strikes at, 280 
Gener, Dr. Migual, 153 
George III of England, 118 
Georgia. 53 

Georgia Institute of Technol- 
ogy, 43 
Geronimo, 56, 59, 60, 63, 66, 67, 

73, 96 
Gettysburg, Pa., 292 
Gibbs. Capt. Irving, 38, 39 
Glenn, Gen. Edwin F., xi, 299 
Goethals, General, 188 
Gomez, General. 109, 138, 204 
Gonzales, Alexander, 109 
Gorgas, Surgeon, i^ 
Governor's Island, 38, 121, 122 
Gowenlock, Thomas, xi 



Graham, General, 50, 323 
Great White Sultan, 223, 229,^ 

23h 237, 239 
Groton, Mass., 60 



H 



Habana, 94, 123, 131, 152, 153, 

181, 183, 194, 195, 201 
Hadji Butu, 235, 236 
Hagar, Caroline, 19 
Hamilton, Lieut. Col., 80 
Hannah, Lieut. M. E., 168 
Harvard College, 25, 40, 311 
medical school, 37, 40, 48, 

57 
teachers' expedition to, 167, 

168 
Haskell, Miss, 29, 40 
Haughton, Percy, 293 
Headmen, Moro, 225, 226, 227, 

231 
Heintzman, Sgt, 122 
Helmick, Capt., 217 
Hernandez y Barreiro, 140, 176 
Hodges, Gen. Harry L., 152 
Hooker, Henry, 293 
Hopkins, Stephen, 19, 21 
Howland, Capt., 228, 229, 230 
Hughes, Charles E., Jr., 293 
Huidekoper, Frederick, 293 



India, 219 

Indians, 19, 20, 56, 57, 59, 60, 
61 

Algonquins, 58 

Apaches, 56, 59, 60, 62, 64, 
65, 66, 67 

Arapahoes, 58 

Dakotas, 58 

Iroquois, 58 

Narragansets, 58 

Pequots, 58 

Seminoles, 58 

Sioux, 58 

Wampanoags, 58 
Indian Territory, 71, 75 
Indiana, 121, 122 



[347] 



INDEX 



Internationalism, 281 
Investigations 

Congressional, 120 

Senate, 206, 324, 325, 326 



Jackson, Gen. Stonewall, 85 
Jado, Senor Jose Varela, 154 
Jimbangan, Dato, 247 
Johnston, Gordon, xi, 299 
Jolo, Island of, 119, 225 

K 
Kansas Agricultural College, 

Kansas University, 278 
Kean, Dr., 188, 197, 198 
Kent, General, 79, 89, 90, 92 
Kentucky, 58 
Kettle Hill, 89, 90, 92 
Kilbourne, Chas., xi, 299 



Lacoste, Senor Perfecto, 150 

Lake Liguasan, 245 

Lanao, 225 

Las Guasimas, Battle of, 79, 82, 
8S, 87, 89, 90 

Lawton, Maj. Gen., 50, 56, 57, 
61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 69, 
70, 79, 89, 92, 93, 96, 315, 
317, 318, 319, 320, 321, 323, 
332 

Lazaer, Surgeon, 188, 197, 198 

Leavenworth, 62 

Lee, Robert E., 85 

Legion of Honor, 285 

Leicester, Mass., 19 

Leprosy, 55 

Lincoln. Abraham, 59, ^2, 116 

Little Bighorn, 59 

LL.D. — Princeton University, 
300, 301 

Los Angeles, 51 

Lotus Patches, 246 

Louis XVI of France, 118 

Ludlow, General, 194 

Luzon, 217 



M 

McArthur, Douglas, 299 
McClellan, General, 116 
McClure's, quotations from, 

53, 100, lOI 
McCoy, Capt. Frank R., 46, 250 
Mcllvaine, 293 
McKibben, Colonel, 93 
McKinley, President, 53, 73, 74, 

93, 130, 206, 211, 213, 324, 

325, 326 
McNair, Capt., 217 
Macon, Ga., 44 
MacVicar, John, 293 
Magincianao, Sultan of, 238 
Malone, D. F., 294 
Manila, 217, 220, 222 
Mann, Clarence C, 168 
Manoeuvres, German, 282, 283, 

284, 285 
Martha's Vineyard, 25, 31 
Marti Theater, 181 
Massachusetts, 19, 24, 73 
Massachusetts Colony, 20 
Matanzas, 152 
Mayflower, 20, 21, 22, 60 
Mayflower compact, 22 
Mexico, 58, 62, 121, 258, 308 
Middleboro, 27, 40, 41 
Miles, Maj. Gen., 50, 51, 69, 70, 

321, 323 
Miley, Lieut., 92 
Mindanao, 43, 46, 217, 218, 219, 

220, 222, 225, 235, 237 
Mitchel, John Purroy, 293 
Mohawk River, 58 
Monterey, Calif., 42, 51, 292 
Monument Beach, 24, 31 
Moro Province, 119, 216 to 251 
Moro women killed in battle, 

120 
Moseley, Geo. V. S., 299 
Mosquitoes on Lake Liguasan, 

246 



N 



Napoleon, 114 

Narraganset Indians, 58 

New England, 23, 24, 54, 58, 59 



[348] 



INDEX 



New Mexico, 51, 58, 61, 62, 6t, 

71, 75 
New York, 59 

Ninth Regular Cavalry, 80, 85 
Nixon, Brig. Gen. John, 20 
Nolan, Denis, 299 
North Falmouth, 35 



Old Colony Line, 25, 26, 30 
Omaha, riots in, 280 
Outlook, The, 203 



Palma, President of Cuba, 185, 

204 
Parker, Frank, 299 
Patch, Capt., xi 

Pearl fisheries, Philippines, 228 
Peksuot, 59 

Pepper, Geo. Wharton, 293 
Pequot Indians, 58 
Pershing, Capt., 217 
Philip, King, 59, 60 
Philippine, 44, 54, 55, 94, 127 

carnival at Manila, 266 

Christians, 217 

Confucians, 224 

courts, 227 

economy of administration, 
262, 263 

experiments with forage 
grasses, 265 

headmen, 225, 226, 227, 231 

Koran, precepts of, 233, 234, 
235, 237 

Mohammedans, 216 

native lumber, 262, 263 

pearl fishery, 228 

penaky for murder, 225 

piracies, 217 

polygamy, 232, 233 

priests, 227 

schools, 232 

slavery, 232, 237, 238 

slaves, 217, 253 
Christian, 234, 235 
Mohammedan, 234, 235 



Pierce Academy, 27, 40 
Pilgrims, 20, 22, 23, 24, 57 
Plattsburg, x, 292, 293 to 296, 

300 
"Plutarch's Lives," 39 
Plymouth Rock, 20, 22, 24, 57, 

58 
Pocasset, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 35 
Pocasset school, 26, 27, 28, 29 
Police, Royal Northwestern 

Mounted, 62 
Polygamy, laws against, 232, 

233 
Pontiac, 59 

Princeton University, 300, 301 
Proctor, Wm. Cooper, 293 
Prussianism, 281, 282, 286 



Rajah, Mudah, the, 228, 229, 

230 
Rathbone, Estes G., 204 
Reed, Surgeon Walter, 188, 

197, 198, 202, 257 
Religion, Wood's, 45 
Remington, Lieut., 250 
Republicanism, 281, 286 
Revolution, American, 20 
Rey, Gen. Vara de, 90, 91 
Rifle, Crag, 76 
Rivera, Gen. Rius, 140, 150 
Roberts, Field Marshal, 284, 

285, 287 
Rocky Mountains, 58 
Rodriguez, Brig. Gen., 133 
Roman Catholic Church, 160, 

161, 162, 163 
Roosevelt, Theodore, ix, xi, 52, 

53, 54, 62, 67, 68, 73, 74, 77, 

78, 80, 82, 85, 86, 87, 92, 

129, 173, 203, 206, 218, 219, 

294, 308, 315, 327, 329, 330, 

331, 332 
Root, Secy. Elihu, 130, 135, 174, 

179, 187, 212, 214, 291, 328 
Root, Elihu, Jr., 293 
Rough Riders, 71, 72, 75, 76, 77, 

70, 81, 84, 85, 86 



[349] 



INDEX 



Sagamore, 35 

Salem, 58 

Sampson, Admiral, 89 

San Antonio, 76 

San Antonio, Texas, "j^ 

San Juan, 72, 95 

battle of, 72, 79 

hills, 88, 89, 90 

river, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93 
Santiago de Cuba, 45, 81, 88, 
89, 93, 94. 97 to III 

cleansing of city, 95, 102, 103, 

104, 105, 106 
fall of, 93, 94, 95 

famine and fever, 95, 98, 99, 

100, lOI 
high death rate, 95, 97, 98 
prejudice against sanitary in- 
novation, lOi, 102, 103, 104, 

105, 106 

unsanitary conditions of city, 

95, 97, 98 
vk^ater supply, 98, 107, 108 
Scott, Colonel, 228, 229 
Second Cavalry Brig., 80, 81, 

82, 87, 92, 96 
Second Regular Inf., 78, 79 
Seminoles, 58 
Seventh Cavalry, 59 
71st Nevir York Volunteers, 78 
Shafter, General, 79, 80, 81, 90, 

91, 92, 93, 96, 325 
Sherman, General, 53 
Shore Peeps, 29, 30, 31 
Siboney, 81, 82, ^ 
Singapore, 228 
Sioux, 58 
Sirinaya, Fort of, 240, 241, 242, 

24s 
Sitting Bull, 59 
Slavery, suppression of, 232, 

^Z7, 238 
Smith, Col. John Condit, 52 
Smith, Louisa A. Condit, 51, 

52 
Smith, Wilbur, xi 
Socrates, 273 
Southern California, 51 



Spanish American War, 51, 71, 

72 
St. Lawrence River, 58 
Stamford Street Office, 49 
Standish, Miles, 19, 59 
Stanley, explorer, 241 
Stanton, Sec. of War, 116 
Stegomyia, 199, 200 
Stewart, Redmond, 293 
Stimson, Henry L., xi 
Straits Settlement, 219 
Sultan of Sulu, 46, 227, 228, 

235 

Sulu, 44, 22"] 

Summeral, Chas. P., 299 
Sumner, Brig. Gen., 80, 206, 214 
Susquehanna River, 58 



Taft, Gov., 220 

Tamayo, Senor Diego, 139, 176 

Tampa, Florida, "JT, 78 

Taracas, 239 

Tennessee, 58 

Thirty-third Mich. Volun. Inf.. 

89 
Thomas, Landon, xi 
Tories, 21 
Treaty, Bates, 227 
Tropical ansmia, 257, 258 
Typhoid fever 

death rate, 255 

prevention of, 259 

U 

Uproaders, 29, 30, 31 
U. S. Army 
as an instrument of construc- 
tion, 254 
, its life saving work, 256, 257, 
259, 260 



Van Horn, Sir William, 151 
Varona, Seiior Enrique Jose, 

140, 165, 166, 169, 170, 176 
Villalon, Sefior Jose Ramon, 

140, 152 
Vincent, George, 293 



[350] 



INDEX 



W 

Warren, Richard, 19, 21 
Warren, Senator, 73 
Washington, D. C, 53 
Washington, George, 59, 310 
Weigel. General Wm., 299 
Weston, Mass., 19, 24 
Weyler, Capt.-General, 131 
Wheeler, Maj. Gen. Joseph, 

80, 81. 87, 89, 90, 96, 324 
Wherry, Colonel, 79 
White, Chief Justice, 154, I79 
White, William, 21 
Whittlessev. Charles, 293 
Williams, S. M., xi 
Wilmington (North Carolina) 

Star, 251 
Winchester, N. H., 19 
Wood, Barbara, 24, 27 
Wood, Caroline Hagar, 28, 41 
Wood, Chas. Jewett, 19, 20, 27, 

32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 
Wood's Hole, 25, 30 
Wood, Jacob, 24, 28, 31 
Wood, Leonard 
his feats of endurance, 34, 

42. 43, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 

103, 123 
his religion, 45 
is he too much of a military 

man? 307 
promoted, Brig.-Gen., - 93, 

324, 325, 326, 329 



Wood, Leonard 
promoted, Maj. -Gen., 211, 
212, 213, 214, 215, 329 
Wood, Samuel, of Groton, 60 
Wood's attitude towards en- 
listed men of the U. S. 
Army 
annual meets for, 274 
court-martials of, 274, 275, 

276 
desertions among, 276 
educational work for, 277, 

278 
field days for, 274 
organized athletics for, 273 
Woods, Arthur, 293 

X 

Xenophon, 273 

Y 

Yaqui River, 66 

Yellow fever, 54, 188 to 202, 257 

discovery of cause of, 196, 
197. 198, 199 

old theories about, 189, 190, 

191 
prevalence of, 189 
prevention of, 200, 201 
sanitary measures to abate, 

192, 193, 194 

z' 

Zamboanga, 225 



r^sii 



t 



I 



